An Interview With Dr. Daniel Caplivski Caplivski is the director of the travel-medicine program at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

When you have an action-packed travel itinerary, you don’t want to get sidelined with an unpleasant medical problem. Fortunately, you can make the most of your trip by taking a few simple precautions.

Get shot The very first thing you should do is go to the Center for Disease Control’s website and look up your destination in their Yellow Book. This will tell you both what vaccines are required and which are recommended.

In places where hygiene doesn’t meet Western standards, it’s often suggested that you get hepatitis A and typhoid-fever vaccines and a tetanus booster.

Your family doctor may be able to give you some of the injections (ideally, four to six weeks before your trip), but if you are going somewhere really off the beaten path, she may refer you to a travel-medicine specialist.

Cover your bases The most common of all health problems is travelers’ diarrhea. Get a prescription for antibiotics (usually Cipro) before you go, then at the first sign of symptoms take one tablet per day until the problem clears up.

If you are susceptible to stomach problems, the doctor may give you a prescription for rifaximin, which prevents diarrhea in the first place. [source: Allure]