Vaccinations

Vaccinations are perhaps the most unpleasant thing about preparing a long term trip; they're controversial, quite painful and can be very expensive.

In Germany we have mandatory health insurance, and eventhough not all insurances pay for travel vaccinations, mine does. So I made this decision without considering the expenses, however I will still list them just incase they're relevant to others.

I went to the "Tropeninstitut" of the Charité in Berlin. Upon arrival you draw a waiting number and depending on the amount of people there before you, wait between 10 minutes and 1.5 h. In this time you fill out a form outlining relevant medical history as well as time and place of your trip. Then you see a doctor that will recommend a certain amount of injections vaccinations necessary for your trip. These recommendations will depend on the types of injections you already have, and the amount of time left before you leave for your trip.

I had all the basic injections recommended to German citizens. Having never been outside Europe or America, I was lacking any "exotic" vaccinations.

The lady recommended varions vaccinations to me; Hepatitis A, a renewal of Hepatitis B, Typhus, Rabies, Meningitis and Japanese Encephalitis. If you are a citizen of the UK you will probably already have Hepatitis B and Meningitis since I know those are mandatory there.

Upon arriving home I took to researching these various diseases and vaccinations. I decided to get all the named injections except for Meningitis, for that is mainly present in Africa. I believe it was suggested to me because it has been listed as a sensible vaccination to all German citizens since 2012 (one year after I recieved my last injections).

Now if your insurance does not cover the vaccinations, The one you might flinch at will be the Japanese Encephalitis (89€ per shot - 2 shots in total). I suggest you read up on that one and decide for yourself. If you're only going to visit the large cities in colder seasons the mosquitoes might just not be around to sting you.

The prices at the Charité are:

Consultation: 11€

Hepatitis A/Typhus combinations: 83€

Hepatitis B : 70€

Japanese Encephalitis(JE): 89€

Meningitis: 51€

Rabies: 70€

This is money that will add considerably to the expenses of your trip, and must be remebered while setting up your budget. I got really scared while reading up on the diseases, so I decided to get JE but I also think a really good mosquito repellant could do the trick.

Rabies, Hepatitis A+B and Typhus I would recommend to everyone visiting Southeast Asia and Australia.

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Em

Berlin

29.11.2017

#travel #travelmedicine #vaccinations #southeastasia #australia

Picture source: http://stm.fi/en/vaccinations

Tropeninstitut Charité: https://tropeninstitut.charite.de/vor_der_reise/