Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE EUROPEAN HEALTH INSURANCE CARD
If you have an EHIC (
W
www.ehic.org.uk,
W
ehic.ie) you are entitled to free consultation and
treatment from doctors and dentists. At hospitals you should simply have to show your EHIC;
for free treatment from a regular doctor or dentist, you should call the IKA (the Social Insurance
Institute, who administer the scheme) on their national appointments hotline,
T
184. For
prescriptions from pharmacies you pay a small fixed charge plus 25 percent of the cost of the
medicine; if you are charged in full, get a receipt and keep the original prescription to claim it
back. You can also claim back for private treatment; take the original receipts and your EHIC to
the IKA within one month, and they will reimburse you up to the limit allowed for similar
treatment by the IKA.
should have a schedule on their door showing the
night and weekend duty pharmacists in town.
If you regularly use any form of
prescription
drug
, you should bring along a copy of the
prescription, together with the generic name of the
drug; this will help you replace it, and avoids
problems with customs o
cials. In this regard, you
should be aware that
codeine
is banned in Greece.
If you import any you might find yourself in serious
trouble, so check labels carefully; it's a major ingre-
dient of Panadeine, Veganin, Solpadeine, Codis and
Nurofen Plus, to name just a few.
Contraceptive pills
are sold over the counter at
larger pharmacies, though not necessarily the
brands you may be used to; a good pharmacist
should come up with a close match.
Condoms
are
inexpensive and ubiquitous - just ask for
profylak-
tiká
(less formally,
plastiká
or
kapótes
) at any
pharmacy, sundries store or corner
períptero
(kiosk).
Sanitary towels and
tampons
are widely sold in
supermarkets.
rough rocks are useful. You may have the bad luck to
meet an armada of
jellyfish
(
tsoúkhtres
), especially
in late summer; they come in various colours and
sizes ranging from purple “pizzas” to invisible, minute
creatures. Various over-the-counter remedies are
sold in resort pharmacies to combat the sting, and
baking soda or diluted ammonia also help to lessen
the effects. Less vicious but far more common are
spiny sea urchins, which infest rocky shorelines year-
round. If you're unlucky enough to step on or graze
against one, an effective way to remove the spines is
with a needle (you can crudely sterilize it with heat
from a cigarette lighter) and olive oil. If you don't
remove the spines, they'll fester.
Bites and stings
Most of Greece's insects and reptiles are pretty
benign, but there are a few that can give a painful
bite. Much the most common are
mosquitoes
: you
can buy repellent devices and sprays at any
minimarket. On beaches, sandflies can also give a
nasty (and potentially infection-carrying) sting.
Adders (
ohiés
) and scorpions (
scorpií
) are found
throughout Greece. Both creatures are shy, but take
care when climbing over drystone walls where
snakes like to sun themselves, and - particularly
when camping - don't put hands or feet in places,
like shoes, where you haven't looked first.
Finally, in addition to munching its way through a
fair amount of Greece's surviving pine forests, the pine
processionary
caterpillar
- which takes its name
from the long, nose-to-tail convoys - sports highly
irritating hairs, with a venom worse than a scorpion's.
If you touch one, or even a tree-trunk they've been
on recently, you'll know all about it for a week, and
the welts may require antihistamine to heal.
If you snap a
wild-fig shoot
while walking, avoid
contact with the highly irritant
sap
. The immediate
antidote to the active alkaloid is a mild acid -
lemon juice or vinegar; left unneutralized, fig “milk”
raises welts which take a month to heal.
Common health problems
The main health problems experienced by visitors -
including many blamed on the food - have to do
with
overexposure to the sun
. To avoid these,
cover up, wear a hat, and drink plenty of fluids to
avoid any danger of
sunstroke
; remember that
even hazy sun can burn.
Tap water
meets strict EU
standards for safety, but high mineral content and
less than perfect desalination on many islands can
leave a brackish taste not suited to everyone. For
that reason many people prefer to stick to bottled
water (see opposite). Hayfever sufferers should be
prepared for a pollen season earlier than in
northern Europe, peaking in April and May.
Hazards of the sea
To avoid hazards by the sea, goggles or a dive mask
for swimming and footwear for walking over wet or
