One of the issues often overlooked for international travel is vaccinations. Depending on where you go some are a good idea, some are required. And by required I mean if country ABC stamps your passport then country XYZ might deny you entry without proof of certain vaccines. And THAT is why today it’s Yellow Fever.
It’s a good idea in general to have your basic vaccines up to date. Your childhood immunizations and then whatever adult boosters you may need. People of my generation should make sure they’ve gotten the hepatitis series (A and B) and think about a polio booster; be current on tetanus and think about a whooping cough (pertussis) booster. The reason I call out people of my generation is that I’ve looked around a little and specific to us, there is a need for boosters. Many docs suggest it in general, but for sure if you travel. What you sometimes forget about is all the other places in the world where those folks aren’t typically vaccinated makes you at risk to get what they might have.
We always try to get our annual flu shots before long flights. You know there’s cooties at 38,000 feet, should protect against what we can, right?
So for our rural locations, more specifically parts of southern Africa and maybe a bit of Thailand we have to think about more exotic cooties. For now it’s anti-malaria prophylactics (come on Bill and Melinda, we need that vaccine!). But then there’s typhoid. There’s a vaccine, a couple of them actually. You can get injected (dead virus, lasts three years) or take pills (live virus lasts five years). I’ve done the live virus, hubby and kids have both done the injection and now hubby is up for renewal for the trip we are about to take.
Now Yellow Fever. According to the CDC (the US Center for Disease Control, www.cdc.gov) none of the places on our trip put us at risk of Yellow Fever. According to WHO (World Health Organization, www.who.int) none of the places on our trip put us at risk of Yellow Fever. According to the government of South Africa, our stop in Tanzania to change planes but never leave the airport, we are at risk for Yellow Fever and must prove we’ve been vaccinated or risk not being allowed in the country. So, today we get Yellow Fever vaccines.
If you are on the fence, just think about the risks for you, as an adult, getting the vaccines verses you, as an adult, being in a rural hospital in a third world country with some exotic and deadly and miserable (and preventable) disease. Heck, I broke a rib in rural Africa and knew enough basic first aid to know I could avoid those rural hospitals and preferred the un-medicated pain over the potential for whatever diseases I might catch if I had sought out treatment.
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