My 18 year old son, who has type�1 diabetes, is about to travel Europe for six weeks, and it may be difficult to get supplies and insulin to last that long. He will be traveling from country to country — England, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland. Can he purchase insulin and supplies with a prescription from his doctor? How should he handle this?

First of all, I don’t think there is any real difficulty in getting and handling enough supplies and insulins for six weeks before leaving the US. What your son would need for such a period should be no more than few vials of insulins with no need of keeping them refrigerated, a few dozen syringes (he could reuse them at least for the shots the same day), and enough strips for his self-monitoring (very little space indeed). All of this stuff should be contained in an extra small bag. Nevertheless, in the European countries you list in your question, no problem exists for obtaining supplies and insulin from local pharmacies with a prescription from his doctor.

Hope he has a good time in Europe.

MS

[Editor’s comment: See Traveling with Diabetes, The Diabetes Monitor: Traveling with Diabetes, and Flying With Diabetes.

SS]