Vaccinations

Hey my finance and I are planning a trip through Asia (India, Nepal, Thailand- specifically) Does anyone think we need any vaccinations? We will be gone a total of three months. We were thinking about getting Malaria pills? Is it a good idea? Anything else we should be concerned about? Thanks Reply to this

From personal experience, you will almost certainly require Rabies, Hepatitus and Malaria Protection (possibly others - Typhoid??). There is a growing contingent of travellers that seem to consider these useless. I would estimate that 70% of the travellers we've met are convinced that the treatments (Malaria in particular) are a total rip off and not worth taking. Obviously, I cannot offer any expert advice as to the validity of these claims. We are talking Drugs companies, so im sure there is a conspiracy somewhere amongst all the profit 😊 However, I also believe we live in a society where we dont have much option but to follow the advice of our medical proffessionals. Therefore, My Advice is to discuss it in detail with your Doctor and gather all the facts before making a decision. Good advice for most health situations to be honest 😊

Either way, good look with your Trip. India and Thailand are both fantastic 😊

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Hey guys- I have been doing a lot of research on vaccinations as I am heading to the same countries in less than a month now (also including Malaysia, China, Laos, and Vietnam). Most travel books and doctors recommend hep a and b, Japanese Encephalitus, Tetanus, and in India Malaria and Typhoid. It is too late for me to get the J Encephalitus vaccine and sometimes the vaccine can cause bad side effects, so am not going to get that vaccine. In terms of typhoid- its not highly recommended, but better safe than sorry. For malaria, malarone has bee the most recommended prevention pill, but also very expensive (if from America). Again, its your call on what you need and don't need. Check out www.traveldoctor.com.au for more information on specific areas or www.cdc.gov for the Center for Disease Control. Overall, the best method is to avoid getting mosquito bites- bug spray with deet, and this other stuff that you can spray on your clothes to keep mosquitoes away. I was in Thailand for 17 days last year and did not take any malaria pills and was fine. OOH last, it also depends on the season: for example when i am in Laos it is the wet season and the number of mosquitoes increases, so I am planning to take malaria prevention pills there. It is true that you may not get sick, but if you do it could really suck and possibly be fatal. Happy travels and hope this helps a bit!

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Hi my name is Lissa and I will be traveling to Thailand in two months. To be honest this was a spur of the moment decision for me and I have never been anywhere in Asia before. A good friend of mine joined the Peace Corp last year quite spontaneously and soon thereafter was shipped off to Thailand. He's been there for over a year now I think and he misses his friends and family. As kind of a joke he told me to come visit him .... quite to his surprise I took him up on his "offer".

Now i'm faced with the fact that I know nothing about the Thai culture, I can't speak one single word in Thai, I have no idea where I'm going to be staying (my friend pretty much lives in the jungle), and what things I need to do to prepare for this trip. All of these things of course add to the adventure of such a trip, and I'm confident that I will have an amazing time.

However, I was looking into the vaccinations that are suggested by the CDC and numerous other health websites and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't want to take them all. My boss just returned from a month long trip to Thailand and he says he did not get any vaccinations. Another friend who has been there told me not to bother with the Malaria pills. Once you have Malaria, you have it, the pills don't do much for you. The only one that I was considering was the Hep A ... since that's the one that gets passed through water.

I would appreciate anyone's thoughts or suggestions on this .... as of this moment I am completely overwhelmed (but also completely excited!!!) Reply to this