Getting sick when travelling or working can be disrupting, annoying, and very expensive. While some illnesses come and go quickly without leaving a trace, some illnesses have the potential to cause significant harm.
When considering your holidays or work assignments abroad, it important to consider factors that influence your risks:
- where you are going (specific areas within countries carry different risks)
- the time of year you are going
- how long you will be there
- what activities you will be engaged in.
It is important to consider that some courses of vaccination can take six months to complete. So now is the time, especially if you are intending travel at the end of the year, to consider starting your vaccinations.
While there are all sorts of vaccinations to cover all sorts of disease around the world, its best to start with the basics of what we call ‘Childhood Vaccinations. For most people under 50 years, this includes Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus. For younger people, other immunisations were added including Hepatitis B, Rota Virus and more recently Chicken Pox, and Meningitis.
Through vigorous public health approaches, we have been able to greatly reduce infection rates and even eradicate some diseases in Australia, such as Polio. But many of these diseases continue to be a concern abroad, including the recent widespread European outbreak of Measles, and closer to home, a recent outbreak of Polio in Papua New Guinea.
We suggest, that if it is over ten years since you have been immunised, getting revaccinated. If previously immunised, two boosters will get your coverage for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Chicken Pox, Measles, Diptheria, Whooping Cough and Tetanus up to scratch.
After getting your immunity to ‘Childhood Diseases’ bolstered, it then comes down to targeted vaccinations, matched to meet your needs. We can help with that. After discussing your itinerary with you we can match where you are going, what you will be doing and how long you will be doing it for to decide the vaccinations you require. This will include an assessment of risks including risk from mosquitoes and animal bites.
We are a World Health Organisation registered Yellow Fever vaccination centre, and keep in stock Yellow Fever vaccinations, as well as other travel vaccines, so you don’t need to order in sometimes difficult to acquire vaccines from a chemist.
Besides vaccination, we can offer specific advice for keeping safe and well while you travel, including discussing altitude sickness, avoiding traveller’s diarrhoea, and mosquito-borne diseases, such as Zika virus.
