I have to admit, the potential for falling ill in Africa scares the crap out of me. I already have an exaggerated propensity to mosquito bites and after seeing all those charity adverts over Christmas, what with the starving, malnourished, disease-ridden, bony babies and flies swarming all over their bony faces, it almost feels like the land of Africa doesn’t actually want people living on her.
So … what do I need to vaccinate myself against? The basic list seems to be as follows:
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Meningitis
- Rabies
- Typhoid
- Yellow Fever
I’ll be going back to Nomad as yet again, I’ve been too lazy to sort out a GP. For the more organised, here’s what is available for free on the NHS:
- Flu
- Pneumococcal
- Whooping Cough
- Chicken Pox
- Hepatitis B
- Tubercolosis
- Polio
- Typhoid
- Hepatitis A (first dose only)
- Cholera
See the ‘adult vaccines’ and ‘travel vaccines’ pages on the NHS site for more details.
Let’s see … so given my previous vaccinations, what do I need? I need:
- Hepatitis A booster
- Hepatitis B booster
- Yellow Fever
I’m also needing some sort of anti-malarial. I’ve heard all sorts of horrible stories about the side-effects of anti-malarial drugs and the symptoms of malaria. There’s all sorts of debates about whether the side-effects of the drugs are worth the protection, but I won’t be taking the chance - I’m far too wussy to be falling ill in a foreign country.
Yellow Fever is a bit of a weird one. Nomad advises that I don’t really need it, being that I won’t be around in the danger zones long enough to contract it but Tanzania might require that I have a Certificate of Vaccination anyway, despite not even arriving from a country at risk. I can chance on an exemption certificate instead, but I think given I’ll possibly be heading out into other ‘at-risk’ areas in the future, I might just get the shot.
Update 30/04/13:
Got the yellow fever shot and malaria tablets (Malarone) to the tune of about £130 (accidentally chucked the receipt, dammit, but it was about £80 for the anti-malarials and £50 for the shot). You can see the all-important yellow fever certificate in the image above.
The yellow fever vaccine is a ‘live’ vaccine and gave me some flu-ish symptoms for a day (some headache, gunkiness - took the day off work).
I was given 18 tablets - to start 1 day before I enter the country and conclude 1 week after I return. I was given a choice of which I wanted, along with a list of all their side effects and to be honest, they all sounded horrible. I went for the most expensive as the next best option would require that I pop pills for a month after I return and possibly burn to a crisp in the sun (increased photo-sensitivity).
