Uzbekistan travel health
Required is not recommended: the first is what the border asks about, the second is what a clinic would suggest. Both, for Uzbekistan, then the number to dial and what care costs a visitor. Applies to every guide in Uzbekistan: Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Tashkent.
Required to enter
Nothing. No vaccination certificate is asked for at the border.
Recommended
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for a long or rural stay
Emergency number
103 for an ambulance, 102 for police
Care for visitors
Limited
Adequate in Tashkent, where there are private clinics used to foreigners; thin in Samarkand and thinner beyond it. Anything serious means a flight to Tashkent or out of the country, so evacuation cover matters.
Do not drink the tap water. Stomach upsets from bazaar food and dairy are the common complaint. The heat in July and August is over 36°C with no shade at the monuments, which is what actually sends visitors to a clinic.
The general rules — clinic timing, water, mosquitoes, insurance — are in travel health tips.
The guides in Uzbekistan
SamarkandUzbekistanThe blue domes of the Silk Road, in a city Tamerlane rebuilt to be the centre of the world
BukharaUzbekistanA whole medieval city still standing: minarets, madrasas, covered bazaars and a pool with mulberry trees, and it is quieter than Samarkand
KhivaUzbekistanA walled city of mud brick in the desert, intact from the gates to the minarets, and the one Silk Road town you can walk round on the wall
TashkentUzbekistanThe biggest city in Central Asia, a metro with chandeliers, the world’s oldest Quran, plov cooked in cauldrons the size of a car, and the gateway to the rest