Tuesday, 03 February 2009

• Doctor's Orders: Tips on Travel Vaccinations

  by Molly

  
  

  

  Preparing for a trip is oftentimes an arduous process, and it is easy to forget your travel vaccinations. But these can sometimes be the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to enjoying your trip. For many countries, some vaccines, such as yellow fever, are required for entry. For others, it is just simply necessary to be vaccinated to avoid many of the very avoidable, but detrimental diseases that are common to certain areas.

  I recently spoke to a local NYC doctor, Jerry Clements, about the different options for travel vaccines, and he had some pretty helpful tips! Just to give you a little background about Dr. Clements, he runs a family medical practice on 5th Avenue, and has been a local to the city for years. He is a well-versed traveler as well, and spent two years in South America doing odd jobs all over the continent, now has a home in Italy, and was married in Greece! If you want to talk to anyone about travel vaccines, he is your man. Here is what he said about getting vaccinated for your trip:

  Depending on where you are going, the average number of vaccines you can/should get is between four and five. This generally includes an array of Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever, Tetanus, Typhoid and Meningitis, but varies according to where you are going. It is important for each traveler to evaluate his or her level of "adventurousness" when they travel in order to determine how many and which kinds of shots they should have.  For instance, if you are planning to trek through the jungles of Venezuela, you should most likely be getting a yellow fever shot. Or if you are an adventurous eater, you should look into the various antibiotics to take with you and which kind of preventative vaccines are available to you.

  Dr. Clements also mentioned that one of the most common mistakes travelers make is to either go overboard with vaccines, or to not look into them enough. Many travelers simply go to resorts and spend their entire vacation on the resort property. If that is that case for you, then getting four or five different types of vaccines probably isn't the most appropriate option. But, if you are going to be backpacking through jungles, eating local foods and sleeping in outdoor areas, you should probably go the more cautious route and get more of the vaccines available to you.

  Also, if you are looking for alternatives to the dreaded shots, you are in luck! Because a large portion of infections are transmitted through mosquitoes (malaria, dengue, yellow fever, etc), bringing a good mosquito net to sleep under and strong repellent should do the trick most of the time. Although, as Dr. Clements put it, "it only takes one bite" to ruin a trip.

  For more information, you can give Village Family Practice a call at 212-477-1750. If you're not in the New York area, the Center for Disease Control (wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/) has all the information you will need for pre-trip preparation and recommended entry vaccinations for each country.

  Did you ever go on a trip and go through this vaccination process? Did you opt out and wish you had decided to get them while you were on your trip?

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