I am planning to travel for a year and am trying to find out which of the following countries could supply Lantus and Humalog if I should run out or lose my supplies. I will be visiting Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Puerto Rico. I will then travel in the U.S., where I know I could find help, and then on to Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.

Would there definitely be some equivalent insulin in these places if things were to go wrong? Please could you tell me how to go about researching this?

Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Puerto Rico as well as the U.S. all have these insulins available, although in some small towns in South America you may have some problems. If you contact the manufacturers at their own company web sites, the consumer health representative should also have specific information about availability. You should discus with your own diabetes team what insulin might be available for backup since all countries would have some sort of Regular and NPH insulin even if the Lantus and analogs are not available — to tide you over until some could be shipped to you in an emergency from friends or relatives back in the UK with FedEx or DHL.

SB