Travel to Africa - Immunizations and recommendations

cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
I know several different RME'ers have been to Africa. What immunizations did you receive? There are quite a few options for Malaria prevention, some with nastier side effects than others. I've had mixed reports on which to get but neither came from someone I know personally or wasn't trying to sell me on one or the either. Malarone seems to be recommended by many? Any recommendations?
 
Friends of my family run the Mothers Without Borders program over there, I'm not sure what they reccomend but I can get you in contact with them and they would be able to tell all.
 
I got a guy I go to church that just got back from Africa, I can ask him tomorrow for you, as long as I can remember.
 
Yep, go down to the drug administration building (Can't remember the exact name, maybe Center For Disease Control and Prevention???) and tell them where you will be going. They can look up and give you all the shots that will be needed, there may be a number of repeats visits needed so I'd get started on it now. Malaria will be a big one since I'm certain you will be primarily in the back-country. We actually didn't need to do anything for Malaria because the areas we traveled to were not high risk...oddly enough, my boy had gotten malaria. As I'm sure you are finding out, the Malaria prevention can be administered a number of ways depending on what you want to spend and how committed you are :D (some you take a few days prior, during, and a few days after). I can dig up what we had to get done, but don't remember off-hand.
 
Do you remember what other shots you got Caleb? Some I may have received for Russia/Asia but I need to go to the health department and find out what they recommend in addition.
 
I'll find my papers tonight and let you know. I thought for sure my wife would have blogged it on our adoption blog but it looks like she didn't.
 
Caleb said:
I'll find my papers tonight and let you know. I thought for sure my wife would have blogged it on our adoption blog but it looks like she didn't.
Click to expand...

Please do.

My research showing the following recommendations:
Hepatitis B
diphtheria
tetanus
measles
mumps
rubella
polio
Hepatitis A
Meningococcal meningitis
Rabies
Typhoid
Malaria

I should be good on the majority of those (bold), I'll have to look into the vaccination for Meningococcal meningitis, Rabies, Typhoid and Malaria isn't a vaccine rather a preventive pill.
 
rholbrook said:
Malaria pill are spendie. You have to take them for thirty days after you get back...
Click to expand...

Cheaper than malaria itself :D

With Malarone you are length of trip + 9 days, 1 pill per day. So for a month (estimated) of travel it would be 39 pills @ ~$8/pill. ~$300. Mefloquine and Doxycycline are much cheaper but have some pretty drastic side effects I've been hearing much about. Mefloquine has many reported cases of bad hallucinogenic problems, Doxycycline makes you have trouble in the sun which we will be in for about a month straight :D
 
cruiseroutfit said:
Please do.

My research showing the following recommendations:
Hepatitis B
diphtheria
tetanus
measles
mumps
rubella
polio
Hepatitis A
Meningococcal meningitis
Rabies
Typhoid
Malaria

I should be good on the majority of those (bold), I'll have to look into the vaccination for Meningococcal meningitis, Rabies, Typhoid and Malaria isn't a vaccine rather a preventive pill.
Click to expand...


We got all those vaccinations (besides malaria pills) and we also got yellow fever vaccination. If you are staying in the South, I believe Yellow Fever won't be an issue for you but if you are going to head in to the middle or northern at all, you'll probably want to consider Yellow Fever as well.
 
Caleb said:
We got all those vaccinations (besides malaria pills) and we also got yellow fever vaccination. If you are staying in the South, I believe Yellow Fever won't be an issue for you but if you are going to head in to the middle or northern at all, you'll probably want to consider Yellow Fever as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks Caleb, I'll see what the health dept. recommends on Yellow Fever. I'm not 100% sure on our route as of yet but it will likely include South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and perhaps Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique. I need to crawl through the CDC recommendations for each to see if there are any out of ordinary recommendations.
 
Ended up with a Hep A/B booster as well as Typhoid and Yellow Fever shots and a prescription for Malaria prevention. Still need to track down a flu shot, I've called all the major pharmacies and none stock it this time of year. Any suggestions?
 
neagtea said:
Small pox
It is one of the fun ones the DOD does before headed to the big dunes.
Click to expand...

Interestingly they didn't recommend any worry about small pox and the risk assessment I went through didn't show it as an issue. I wonder if that is isolated to the northern part of the continent?



I am looking for a recommendation for a wicked bug spray, clothes wash, bracelet, etc... For those of you that have spent time in thick mosquito territory, what worked and what didn't? We are going to be in remote Africa for several weeks, there will be no option to buy something there :D
 
Repellant update. I ended up with a permathrin spray that is applied to all clothing and camping gear before departure. I've not applied it yet but am hopeful it doesn't stain or leave the clothes with any type of permanent odor? Lots of high end manufactures sell clothing with this type of coating pre-applied some of which I have owned and I've not dealt with an odor so hopefully the DIY stuff is the same. I also bought some 98% deet spray and the bug bracelets. Malaria has a very high probability in many of the areas we will be traveling in Africa and while I will be on a prophylactic, I'd rather not get bitten. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top