Always, always, always place your medicine in your carry-on bag when you travel by air. One obvious reason is that you may need to use your inhaled asthma medicine during the flight, or at the airport, and you will want to have it handy. You should not pack medicine in your checked luggage. Checked suitcases are stored in the hold of the aircraft.
The hold is not always heated and pressurized to the same extent that the passenger cabin is. Most medicine needs to be kept at room temperature. Also, checked suitcases are frequently waylaid or lost, unlike a bag you keep in your possession. Imagine what a vacation would be like if your medicine arrived 3 days after you did!
Before you travel, make sure that you have enough of your prescription asthma and allergy medicines to last for the duration of your trip. You should bring all your usual daily use maintenance asthma drugs with you, as well as any quick-relief inhalers that you use on an as-needed basis. You should also travel with epinephrine auto-injectors (Epi-Pen, Twinject) if you have experienced anaphylaxis from severe allergy. Auto-injectors are permitted in carry-on luggage, but they must be in the original pack-aging, with the pharmacy’s dispensing label still affixed.
As of this writing, the Transportation Security Admin-istration (TSA) requests that you declare the epineph-rine by notifying the security screeners at the security checkpoint that you are carrying auto-injectors for your medical condition. You are not required to travel with a letter from your physician confirming the medical necessity of traveling with auto-injectors, but many physicians will gladly write you such a letter if you ask them to. You can obtain the latest information on traveling by air with medicines at the TSA Web site (www.tsa.gov), and in particular at http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/.
Nebulizers are permitted in carry-on bags; any batteries must be disconnected, and the machine can-not be used in flight. The patient’s name on any prescrip-tion’s label must match the passenger’s identification papers. Also, if your travels take you outside of the United States, it is a good idea to check in with your physician ahead of time to see if there are any additional medicines you should bring along, such as corticosteroids, antibiotics, or epinephrine. Even though communication by phone anywhere in the world is now easily achieved, obtaining a prescription medication on a moment’s notice in a country far away from your doctor can become very complicated.