Did you know that some vaccinations are required for certain destinations and travel visas?  Consult with a travel clinic to make sure you’re prepared!

Vaccination Requirements for Travel

The most commonly required vaccination is for yellow fever.   Yellow fever is caused by a virus spread by mosquitoes; it kills about 30,000 people each year.

Because it has the potential to cause serious and deadly epidemics, some countries require travelers to present proof that they have been vaccinated for the disease, either when they arrive or with their visa application. No vaccine means you get turned around at the airport or you don’t get your visa.

Depending on your destination and your travel history, other vaccinations may be required as well.

Which Vaccines Do You Need?

Other vaccines and preventative measures are not required for travel, but you may still need them to stay healthy.  Nobody wants to have the trip of a lifetime cut short by a vaccine-preventable  illness. By the same token, nobody wants to bring back an exotic disease as a souvenir.

The vaccines you need depend on a laundry list of factors, including:

• Y0ur destination country
• Where you’re staying– Will you be in the city? At the beach? In the jungle? Will you be at a resort or doing a homestay?
• What you’re doing — Outdoor activities will expose you to a different set of germs than staying indoors. 
• What you plan to eat— Your risk profile changes depending on whether you’ll be eating only in high end restaurants, dabbling in street food or re-enacting your own personal version of “Bizarre Foods.”  Protect yourself accordingly!

Why Use a Travel Clinic?

As much as you may love your primary care physician, he or she is probably not an expert in travel medicine.  Plus, most primary care doctors don’t see enough world travelers to justify keeping vaccines like yellow fever in stock.

At a travel clinic, the doctors and nurses have a background in travel medicine and are familiar with what vaccines are required for your itinerary.

Some local health departments do offer travel medicine clinics. However, a private travel medicine clinic like Passport Health may be more convenient.

Passport Health is the country’s largest provider of travel medicine services. With over 22o clinics nationwide,  there’s probably one near you.

Passport Health offers a complete travel health consultation, with services including:

• Information about the health risks for your destination and how to keep yourself safe.
• A review of your medical history to determine which vaccines you need.
• Vaccine education.
• All the vaccines you need to get yourself up-to-date and ready to travel, available on site.
• Malaria prevention.
• A personalized, bound “Itinerary” with destination-specific information on health risks, security risks and safety precautions you should take.

Be prepared- make an appointment today!

Tags: travel medicine, vaccinations

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2014 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Destinations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.