The Gambia travel health
Required is not recommended: the first is what the border asks about, the second is what a clinic would suggest. Both, for The Gambia, then the number to dial and what care costs a visitor. Applies to every guide in The Gambia: The Gambia.
Required to enter
- Yellow fever certificate if arriving from a country where yellow fever is present — including a transit of more than twelve hours in one
Recommended
- Yellow fever, which is recommended for the whole country whatever the entry rule says
- Hepatitis A and typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Malaria prophylaxis — the risk is high everywhere, the resort strip included
- Meningitis and rabies for some itineraries — ask a travel clinic
Emergency number
There is no national emergency number. Police and fire stations each have their own, often a mobile — ask your hotel for them when you arrive
Care for visitors
Limited
Limited. Private clinics near the coastal resorts handle the everyday for visitors; anything serious goes to Dakar or Europe. Insurance with repatriation cover is the part that matters.
Malaria is highest in and after the rains, from July to November, and present all year. Some ordinary medicines — anything with codeine or diazepam — are banned under The Gambia’s drugs law, so bring a copy of every prescription and keep pills in their packaging. The Atlantic off the hotel beaches has a serious undertow.
The general rules — clinic timing, water, mosquitoes, insurance — are in travel health tips.
