What medicine did you bring to Vietnam?

[Dan_P 5]

Just curious what medicine you brought to Vietnam?

This is what i brought:

-Peptol Bismol

-Tylenol

-Cold Medicine

-Doxycycline (Malaria pills)

-Visine eye drops

-Neosporin

-Antibiotics

Also got some Ultrathon insect repellent and suntan lotion

Just curious what everyone else brought?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

I bring Advil instead of Tylenol. I just think it works better on headaches. I also bring an antihistamine instead of cold medicine. I rarely get colds, but have occasional allergy problems. I brought antibiotics on my first trip, but not since then. Pepto Bismol is good for upset stomach, but Immodium is better for diarrhea.

Anyway, a lot of this stuff comes in those little traveler's first aid kits like the ones they sell at Walgreens.

I also bring Halls honey/lemon lozenges. They're great on the long flight when your throat gets dry. Bring a big bag. Once your VN friends and relatives get a taste they'll be snatching them away from you. They think it's the internal equivalent of Eagle oil.

[Tuanv 2]

I am just bringing a bottle of Motrin.

[Joe&Diane 0]

Just curious what medicine you brought to Vietnam?

This is what i brought:

-Peptol Bismol

-Tylenol

-Cold Medicine

-Doxycycline (Malaria pills)

-Visine eye drops

-Neosporin

-Antibiotics

Also got some Ultrathon insect repellent and suntan lotion

Just curious what everyone else brought?

For me I brought the following:

-advil (pain and better for the liver than Tylenol) buy generic ibuprofen or motrin it's much cheaper

-neosporin (generic -triple antibiotic much cheaper)

-zinc topical for burns

-bandages,tapes,gauze (i'm glad i did because i got burn from exhaust pipe from motorbike)

- 100% deet from REI

-Meclizine (prescription med for nausea and vomiting)

-xanax (great for sleeping on plane or first few nights in Vietnam because of time diiference)

From working in a pharmacy, I don't use anti-diarrhea meds not until about 3-4 days. you need to "flush" out what you have after a few days. it can be lethal if you sustain it. there's an eye drop med in HCMC that i bought, sorry I forgot the name but it works much better than visine. have a great time!

[Kevin and 10]

Just curious what medicine you brought to Vietnam?

This is what i brought:

-Peptol Bismol

-Tylenol

-Cold Medicine

-Doxycycline (Malaria pills)

-Visine eye drops

-Neosporin

-Antibiotics

Also got some Ultrathon insect repellent and suntan lotion

Just curious what everyone else brought?

Amodium AD

hydrocortisone

sun block

[ScottThuy 140]

Immodium #1 on the list as its not available there and food poisoning is far too common to not have it.

Halls (a variety of vitamin C flavors)

Tylenol

Calcium

sensodine

tums

bonine (thuy gets car sick easy.)

and hydrogen peroxide & aspirin if there is someone there needing it...

[ttp 0]

Immodium and Tylenol. Get some over the counter meclizine for anybody you know over there that gets carsick.

You can get nearly any antibiotics you want over there without a prescription. Of course, Asia is notorious for many drug-resistant diseases due to improper antibiotic use. Whenever my wife gets a SLIGHT cold, she'll go to the pharmacist and they'll give her a grab bag of a couple of antibiotics, some steroids and some antihistamines. I've harped about it enough with her that now she'll just tough it out, since it's only a cold. It's truly irresponsible to be handing out antibiotics like they were candy.

Sorry about the rant.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Immodium and Tylenol. Get some over the counter meclizine for anybody you know over there that gets carsick.

You can get nearly any antibiotics you want over there without a prescription. Of course, Asia is notorious for many drug-resistant diseases due to improper antibiotic use. Whenever my wife gets a SLIGHT cold, she'll go to the pharmacist and they'll give her a grab bag of a couple of antibiotics, some steroids and some antihistamines. I've harped about it enough with her that now she'll just tough it out, since it's only a cold. It's truly irresponsible to be handing out antibiotics like they were candy.

Sorry about the rant.

A lot of those medicines that the pharmacists hand out like candy are cheap knockoffs of western world brand name drugs, and are made in India or China. They resemble real antibiotics the same way that a piece of moldy bread resembles penicillin.

I was having an allergy attack one day in Saigon. Phuong sent her son to the pharmacist down the street to fetch some medication. Before he left, I showed him the translation for "antihistamine" on my Kim Tu Dien. He came back with a little plastic bag packed with half a dozen different drugs. It took some time, but I managed to locate most of them on the Internet. One was made in China. The rest were made in India. Not a single one was an antihistamine. One was even a generic pain reliever for arthritis!

So, Phuong and I went down to see the pharmacist, along with my Kim Tu Dien. I showed the pharmacist what I wanted, and he started putting together another little drug cocktail. "KHONG!" I said, while tapping the screen on my Kim Tu Dien. After about 15 minutes of this charade, he finally started handing me the little pamphlet inserts for each medication which (thankfully) were also printed in English. One of the black capsules he took out was a generic antihistamine, so I told him to give me 20 of those, and nothing else. He sneered at me after I paid and walked away.

That ended up being the weakest antihistamine I'd ever taken. When we got to the US I threw them away and bought some Benadryl.

[Dan_P 5]

A lot of those medicines that the pharmacists hand out like candy are cheap knockoffs of western world brand name drugs, and are made in India or China. They resemble real antibiotics the same way that a piece of moldy bread resembles penicillin.

one is that the fakes are weak, but that isn't as bad as if it had harmful ingredients, which can and have killed people. I try not to buy any medicine in Vietnam unless i have absolutely no other choice.

[Dan_P 5]

Immodium and Tylenol. Get some over the counter meclizine for anybody you know over there that gets carsick.

You can get nearly any antibiotics you want over there without a prescription. Of course, Asia is notorious for many drug-resistant diseases due to improper antibiotic use. Whenever my wife gets a SLIGHT cold, she'll go to the pharmacist and they'll give her a grab bag of a couple of antibiotics, some steroids and some antihistamines. I've harped about it enough with her that now she'll just tough it out, since it's only a cold. It's truly irresponsible to be handing out antibiotics like they were candy.

Sorry about the rant.

yeah, i know, i don't understand, it's a friggin' cold, what's the need to take antibiotics and steroids for a slight cold. though, the reason is because the steroids immediately makes you feel better, and the antibiotics will kill just about anything. it's like you have a spider and you kill it with a sledgehammer. but, it's ingrained in their culture that way. btw, those bags of stuff isn't cheap either, i was told they're like 100,000VND (~$5-6 USD) though that includes a shot (i'm guessing b6/b12), which is quite a bit, considering the salary over there. and usually one treatment (3-4 days) isn't enough, you need two.

[ttp 0]

Though they're made in India or China, they should be fairly decent. I wouldn't trust the China-made ones, but I believe India makes some decent drugs. However, drugs should be stored at a steady temperature and protected from humidity. So basically the ones sitting on a shelf in an un-air-conditioned storefront would hardly hold their potency for long.

But overall they do work. I think you got a bad pharmacist. Whenever my wife needs car-sickness medicine, they give her some sort of antihistamine and it puts her to sleep.

Your best bet next time is to ask for a drug by name. Some popular ones they'll know by the brand name. For others, give them the generic and don't take no for an answer. Most places I've been had good selections.

[ttp 0]

Colds are caused by viruses, which antibiotics CANNOT touch. Any bug that is not killed by antibiotics is only made stronger. It happens everywhere, the US isn't much better about its prescribing practices. All these new "superbugs" are the direct result of inappropriate usage. Most third-world countries have super-resistant bugs that well-made Western drugs can barely treat.

It's best to pray you don't catch anything too tough...

Edited September 3, 2010 by ttp

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Though they're made in India or China, they should be fairly decent. I wouldn't trust the China-made ones, but I believe India makes some decent drugs. However, drugs should be stored at a steady temperature and protected from humidity. So basically the ones sitting on a shelf in an un-air-conditioned storefront would hardly hold their potency for long.

But overall they do work. I think you got a bad pharmacist. Whenever my wife needs car-sickness medicine, they give her some sort of antihistamine and it puts her to sleep.

Your best bet next time is to ask for a drug by name. Some popular ones they'll know by the brand name. For others, give them the generic and don't take no for an answer. Most places I've been had good selections.

Dunno. I had never heard of the Indian company that made the antihistamine I was taking. They had dozens of medications they manufacture listed on their website, along with a list of the governments that had certified them for use. I didn't see a single one that was FDA approved, which is probably why I'd never heard of the company. There were a few drugs in their catalog that I suspected were knockoffs of western pharmaceutical company drugs that were still covered by patent in western countries.

It's possible the guy intentionally gave me the worst antihistamine he had just because I was giving him a hard time.

[ttp 0]

Next time, write down "diphenhydramine" on a slip of paper and send someone to get it. You might get overcharged, but hopefully you'll get what you need. I sent my wife to get some cipro, and she came back with some Indian-made, weird brand name stuff, by the generic name was correct. Once my wife got some antibiotic. I knew it was legitimate because it smelled awful, just like penicillins do.

[DansJourney 0]

Not medicine, but... Baby wipes! Great alternatives to soggy toilet paper..

I also usually take the following arsenal:

Immodium

Benadryl

Headache Meds (Advil, etc..)

Neosporin