This guide provides essential health information for international travelers visiting Thailand. It highlights communicable diseases that travelers should be aware of and offers practical advice on appropriate disease prevention measures to ensure a safe and healthy journey.
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Be aware of current health issues in Thailand. Learn how to protect yourself.
- Global Measles May 28, 2025: Measles cases are rising in many countries around the world. All international travelers should be fully vaccinated against measles with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to CDC's measles vaccination recommendations for international travel.
- Anthrax May 29, 2025: There have been outbreaks of anthrax in northeastern Thailand. Purchase meat from reputable sources and do not eat raw or undercooked meat. Avoid animal products that could have been sourced from animals that may have died of natural causes. Avoid contact with dead animals or carcasses. If you suspect that you may have come into contact with anthrax, seek urgent medical advice.
- Contact and droplet diseases: Influenza, COVID-19, Mpox
- Insect-borne diseases: Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis
- Food & water-borne diseases: Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Cholera
- Animal-borne diseases: Rabies, Leptospirosis
- Airborne diseases: Tuberculosis, Measles
- Soil/water contact diseases: Melioidosis
- Sexually transmissible infections (STIs) & Blood-borne diseases: HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B
Check the vaccines list and visit your doctor at least a month before your trip to get vaccines or medicines you may need.
Learn actions you can take to stay healthy and safe on your trip. Vaccines cannot protect you from many diseases in Thailand, so your behaviors are important.
- Eat and drink safely: Choose Safe Food and Drinks When Traveling
- Prevent bug bites: Bugs (like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas) can spread a number of diseases in Thailand. Many of these diseases cannot be prevented with a vaccine or medicine. You can reduce your risk by taking steps to prevent bug bites.
- Avoid sharing body fluids: Diseases can be spread through body fluids, such as saliva, blood, vomit, and semen.
Protect yourself:
- Use latex condoms correctly.
- Do not inject drugs.
- Limit alcohol consumption. People take more risks when intoxicated.
- Do not share needles or any devices that can break the skin. That includes needles for tattoos, piercings, and acupuncture.
- If you receive medical or dental care, make sure the equipment is disinfected or sanitized.
- Reduce your exposure to germs: Follow these tips to avoid getting sick or spreading illness to others while traveling:
- Wash your hands often, especially before eating.
- If soap and water aren’t available, clean hands with hand sanitizer (containing at least 70% alcohol).
- Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. If you need to touch your face, make sure your hands are clean.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.
- Try to avoid contact with people who are sick.
If you are sick, stay home or in your hotel room, unless you need medical care.
Use the
Healthy Travel Packing List for Thailand for a list of health-related items to consider packing for your trip. Talk to your doctor about which items are most important for you.
If you are not feeling well after your trip, you may need to see a doctor. Be sure to tell your doctor about your travel, including where you went and what you did on your trip. Also tell your doctor if you were bitten or scratched by an animal while traveling.
If your doctor prescribed antimalarial medicine for your trip, keep taking the rest of your pills after you return home. If you stop taking your medicine too soon, you could still get sick.
Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. If you become ill with a fever either while traveling in a malaria-risk area or after you return home (for up to 1 year), you should seek immediate medical attention and should tell the doctor about your travel history.
For more information on what to do if you are sick after your trip, see
Getting Sick after Travel.
If you are traveling from a high-risk area or exhibit symptoms consistent with any dangerous communicable diseases* as defined by the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, you may be subject to additional health screening upon arrival.
Screening procedures will be carried out in accordance with the current regulations issued by the Disease Control Division at designated entry points.
For your safety and the safety of others, travelers suspected of having a dangerous communicable disease may be required to undergo medical evaluation and, if necessary, temporary isolation until a qualified health professional confirms that the risk of transmission has been eliminated.
Dangerous Communicable Diseases
According to the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, the following are classified as dangerous communicable diseases. These diseases are highly contagious and can spread rapidly. If a person is suspected of having one of these diseases, it must be reported to a communicable disease control officer. For public safety, isolation may be required until the individual is no longer considered contagious.
List of Dangerous Communicable Diseases are as follows.
- Plague
- Smallpox
- Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
- West Nile Fever
- Yellow fever
- Lassa fever
- Nipah virus disease
- Marburg virus disease
- Ebola virus disease-EVD
- Hendra virus disease
- Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome-SARS
- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-MERS:
- Screening criteria: Fever with respiratory symptoms (e.g., cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, pneumonia) and travel history to the Middle East or other risk areas within 14 days before symptom onset.
- Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis(XDR-TB)