Vietnam · Hanoi to HCMC · Travel Medicine
Vietnam has the highest traveler's diarrhea rate in Southeast Asia. Carry the Rx in your day pack.
One short course of azithromycin, the antibiotic CDC lists first-line for the region. Plus Zofran for the nausea that usually shows up first, and Meclizine for the Halong Bay overnight and the Mekong Delta boats. Ready at your pharmacy before you fly.
- Physician-founded
- Licensed in all 50 states
- HSA / FSA eligible
- Same-day Rx in most cases
A peer-reviewed cross-sectional study of foreign travelers in Southeast Asia reported a 19% attack rate of traveler's diarrhea among travelers to Vietnam, the highest of any country in the regional comparison. The CDC Yellow Book recommends azithromycin as empiric first-line in Southeast Asia because Campylobacter is the dominant pathogen and fluoroquinolone resistance, including documented resistance in Vietnamese isolates of Campylobacter, Shigella, and ETEC, has eroded ciprofloxacin's usefulness. Malaria is not part of the picture on the standard tourist circuit. CDC reports no malaria cases in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Nha Trang, or Quy Nhon, and antimalarials are not recommended for the Mekong or Red River deltas. What travelers do meet, and meet repeatedly, is the GI risk and the motion exposure that comes with overnight junks, sleeper buses, longtail boats, and motorbike transfers stitched across a 1,650 km country.
Vietnam travel health guide — vaccines, snapshot overview, and what to review before you go.
Orders are reviewed and prescriptions sent to your pharmacy within 24 hours.
Booking questions, platform help, or just not sure where to start, give us a call.
+1 (302) 251-2302Rx at your pharmacy in three steps.
No appointment. No waiting room. Answer a few questions and a licensed provider reviews within hours.
Your destination, dates, health history, and current medications. Takes about 2 minutes.
A licensed clinician reviews your health profile, checks for interactions, and approves your prescription.
- Allergy screen passed
- Drug interactions clear
- Prescription approved
Your approved prescription is sent electronically to the pharmacy of your choice. Pick it up when your pharmacy has it ready.
Skip the appointment. Get the same Rx.
Both columns cover the visit and prescribing only. Your pharmacy bills the medication itself on either side.
Medications in the Vietnam (Hanoi · Hoi An · Ho Chi Minh City) plan
Vietnam travel medication FAQ
- The food is the point, which is also why the data lands where it does. A peer-reviewed survey of foreign travelers in Southeast Asia reported a 19% attack rate of traveler's diarrhea among travelers to Vietnam, the highest of any country in that comparison. The CDC Yellow Book also notes that Campylobacter is the dominant pathogen across the region and that ciprofloxacin resistance is widespread in Southeast Asian isolates, which is why azithromycin is the first-line recommendation. You are not taking the antibiotic on day one. You are carrying it for the morning in Hoi An or the second night on a Halong Bay junk where the call would otherwise be whether to find a clinic.
- Standard CDC dosing for empiric self-treatment is 500 mg by mouth once daily for 3 days, or a single 1,000 mg dose, taken at the first sign of dysenteric (bloody) or febrile diarrhea. Most travelers feel meaningful improvement inside 24 hours and are back on the itinerary by day two. The course is short on purpose: long enough to clear the bacterial cause, short enough that it does not sit unfinished in a day pack for the rest of the trip. If symptoms do not improve after 48 hours of dosing, that is the signal to get evaluated locally because something other than bacterial TD may be in play.
- Three prescriptions in one visit. Azithromycin for the TD risk that has Vietnam at the top of the regional table. Ondansetron (Zofran) for nausea, which usually arrives a day before the diarrhea itself, and which also covers food-related nausea on long street-food days in Hanoi or Saigon. Meclizine (Antivert) for the motion exposure that is unavoidable on a Vietnam trip: the Halong Bay overnight junk, the Sapa sleeper bus, the Mekong Delta longtail boats, the Hai Van Pass road transfer, and the motorbike day-tours in Hue and the Central Highlands. Three risks, three prescriptions, one visit.
- Orders are reviewed by a US-licensed provider and the Rx is sent electronically to your pharmacy within 24 hours. Most travelers can pick it up the same day.
- After your provider approves the Rx, it's sent electronically to whichever pharmacy you choose during your visit. Your pharmacy will tell you when the medication is ready for pickup. You can use your pharmacy insurance to cover the medication itself.
- If a provider can't safely prescribe (rare, usually due to a contraindication), the visit fee is refunded in full. You only pay if the Rx is sent.
Eat the bun cha. Cruise Halong Bay. Carry the Rx that handles the rest.
One visit, three prescriptions for the TD risk, the food and motion nausea, and the overnight boats. Reviewed by a US-licensed provider, ready at your pharmacy before you fly to Hanoi.