Gay Men with HIV Recommendations Before You Depart Below are some guidelines and precautions for the positive traveler to make vacationing easily enjoyable, not life-threatening.

Here are a few vital areas to examine and helpful tips to consider for HIVers planning a holiday. By Bob Adams for Out Traveler, July/August 2005.

Visit Your Doctor
The first step any gay HIV-positive gay traveler should take is to evaluate overall health with a physician with a close eye kept to CD-4 cell levels. For gay HIVers with CD-4 cell counts below 200 – which indicates severe immune system damage – trips to areas where parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases are prevalent can be very dangerous to any gay man and should be avoided at all costs.

Get Vaccinated
Some countries require vaccinations against common endemic diseases. Check with the State Department or a foreign embassy or consulate to see which inoculations are needed. All gay HIV-positive travelers should be vaccinated against polio, typhoid, and hepatitis A and B, but travelers with a CD-4 count below 200 should avoid ‘live vaccines’ like those for the measles and yellow feaver.

Pack the Essentials
For any gay traveler, man or woman, a global traveler who has been HIV-positive, should be careful with mosquito repellent – and use it liberally. Health experts say avoiding mosquito bites is a key disease-prevention step when traveling as a gay man with HIV. Other important items to pack include over-the-counter antidiarrheal and antinausea medications, a waterless cleanser or small bar of antibacterial soap, antbacterial wipes, condoms (they may not be available in some countries), chlorine tablets or filters to disinfect water in an emergency, and a signed letter from your physician that lists all the medications you should take as a gay man traveling with HIV.

Insure Yourself
HIV-positive gay travelers should check to see if their health insurance offers coverage while overseas. Some plans cover only emergency services and others, like Medicare and Medicaid, have no international coverage for gay men with HIV at all. Supplemental health insurance for gay men with HIV is available from most carriers and guarantees a health-care safety net for gay men while out of the country.

Watch how you Pack
When packing your antiretroviral drugs there are two options for gay men: You can either leave them in their original marked prescription bottles to avoid any possible delays at security checkpoints or confiscation by customs agents, or gay men can put all the pills into a Baggie or plastic drug-dosing box so that your HIV infection is not obvious when entering countries that may discriminate against gay HIV-positive visitors. (A full list of countries with HIV entry prohibitions can be found on two US State Department websites). Whatever your approach, gay men should choose, pack your medications in your carry-on and avoid exposing them to sunlight and severe temperatures, which can cause some medicines to break down.

If you find these recommendations for gay men before you depart, please read the guidelines for gay men traveling with HIV during your trip.

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