Medical advice for travelers to Nepal

Nepal is a beautiful tourist destination, known for its Himalayan range with peaks towering over 8000 meters with the roof of the world Mt. Everest . Katmandu is the capital of Nepal , rich in cultural heritage and its pagoda temples. It is located at an altitude of 1500 meters and Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha is a tranquil place to visit.

Nepal spans 800 kilometers across and has the widest altitude range of any country on earth starting from 200 meters above sea level in the Terai (flat lands) to 8848 meters on the summit of Mount Everest within a stretch of about 200 kilometers. Along with the altitude, changes the weather, landscape, and ethnicity of people with their different languages and culture.

Most foreigners enjoy trekking around the Himalayas, rafting down white water rapids of the Trisuli to watch the one horned rhinoceros and the elusive Royal Bengal tiger in the jungle of the Chitwan National Park .

The varied weather makes it a bit difficult to pack for a visit to Nepal . You may be riding on an elephant in a hot temperate climate and only few days later hiking into the bitter cold of the mountains. The best time to visit is either in the spring or the fall season when the weather is pleasant and fairly stable.

Nepal is a developing country and as any other country in the subcontinent, has its endemic diseases. Food and water borne diseases are the major cause of illness among travelers, including mainly Travellers diarrhea, Typhoid fever, Viral Hepatitis prevalent in the hills as well as the flat lands. Japanese encephalitis, Meningococcal Meningitis, Rabies are less common.