Health and Safety in Ghana

Malaria is the real one

Malaria is present throughout Ghana, all year, at every altitude the country has. It is the single most important health consideration of a visit and the one that needs arranging before you leave, because antimalarial medication is prescribed and is generally started in advance of arrival. Speak to a travel clinic or your own doctor several weeks ahead — which regimen suits you depends on your health, your route and how long you are staying, and that is a clinical decision rather than one a travel page should make.

Medication is only half of it, and the half people neglect is bite avoidance. The mosquito that carries malaria bites from dusk through the night, which makes evening the time to cover up: long sleeves and trousers after sundown, repellent on any exposed skin, and a room that is either properly screened, air-conditioned, or has a net over the bed — check the net for holes before you rely on it. A fan pointed at the bed genuinely helps, because mosquitoes fly poorly in moving air.

The part that matters most comes after the trip. Malaria can present weeks after exposure, long after you are home and have stopped thinking about it, and its early symptoms are ordinary — fever, headache, aches, tiredness — and are routinely mistaken for flu. If you develop a fever within a few months of returning, tell the doctor you have been in a malaria area and say so explicitly. That single sentence is the difference between a straightforward illness and a serious one.

Vaccinations, water and food

Yellow fever is the one with a paperwork dimension: a vaccination certificate is required for entry if you are arriving from or transiting a country where the disease is present, and it is checked at the airport rather than waved through. The list of countries that triggers it changes, so confirm your own route rather than assuming, and carry the physical certificate — a photograph of it is not the document. Beyond that, a travel clinic will usually raise typhoid and hepatitis and will make the call based on your history and plans.

Water is straightforward. Do not drink from the tap; do drink the sachet water sold absolutely everywhere, cold, cheap and safe, which is what most Ghanaians drink too — bite the corner off and squeeze. Bottled water is equally fine and more expensive. Use the same water for brushing teeth if you want to be careful, and be a little wary of ice in places that look improvised.

Food is a smaller worry than most visitors expect, and the standard advice applies without needing to be nervous about it: eat where there is a queue and fast turnover, favour things cooked to order in front of you, be more careful with anything that has sat out, and peel fruit yourself. Ghana's street food and chop bars are one of the best things about the country and avoiding them entirely would be a poor trade for a marginal reduction in risk.

Heat, sun and the harmattan

Ghana sits a few degrees off the equator and the sun is correspondingly strong, including on overcast days and including through the haze described below. Sunburn arrives faster than northern visitors expect. The bigger issue for most people is humidity rather than raw temperature — the coast is humid most of the year and the combination is more tiring than the thermometer suggests. Drink considerably more water than you feel you need, plan walking and markets for the morning, and treat the middle of the day as a reason to be somewhere shaded.

The harmattan is worth knowing about because it changes the country for part of the year. Between roughly December and February a dry wind carries Saharan dust south across West Africa, cooling the nights noticeably, hazing the light and the horizons, and drying the air out. It is a good time to travel — cooler and rain-free — with two caveats: photography loses its distance, and anyone with asthma or a respiratory condition should expect the dust to be noticeable and pack accordingly.

The roads, and ordinary safety

Road traffic is the most likely serious risk to a visitor in Ghana, which is true of a great many countries and is rarely the thing people prepare for. Driving is assertive, vehicle condition varies widely, and unlit hazards after dark — pedestrians, animals, stationary vehicles, unmarked roadworks — are the specific danger. The local advice, which is worth taking literally, is not to travel long distances by road at night. Beyond that: choose a vehicle you are comfortable with rather than the cheapest seat available, wear a seatbelt where one exists, and do not be shy about asking a driver to slow down, which is a normal thing to do here. How the country's transport actually works, and when flying beats driving, is covered by the transport guide.

Crime, in contrast, is the thing to worry about least. Ghana is among the most stable countries in the region, violent crime against visitors is rare, and the culture of welcome towards strangers is genuine rather than promotional. Ordinary urban habits cover it: keep your phone away on busy streets, carry the day's cash rather than all of it, use a hotel safe, take some care in crowded markets and at night in unlit areas, and use ride-hailing or a known driver after dark. Scams that target visitors tend to be of the persistent-friendship-then-a-request kind rather than anything threatening.

Two practical closers. Medical care is decent in Accra and Kumasi, with private hospitals that visitors generally use, and thins substantially outside the cities — which is a distance problem rather than a competence one, and the reason travel insurance covering evacuation is worth having if you are going north or into the parks. And check your own government's current travel advice while planning, particularly for anything near a land border, because those assessments change and a guide is a snapshot.