{"id":7066,"date":"2018-10-29T09:23:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T13:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/?p=7066"},"modified":"2024-06-18T07:35:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T11:35:36","slug":"travel-vaccinations-yes-or-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theprofessionalhobo.com\/travel-vaccinations-yes-or-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Vaccinations: How to Decide if You Should Get Vaccinated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the years, the topic of vaccines, including travel vaccinations, has been rife with opinions, stories, and rumors.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I originally published this post in 2015 and decided to do some research and update this in 2018 to be a helpful resource as you decide what travel vaccinations to get (if any) before you hit the road. <\/span>It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
Note: I have not made substantial updates to this article since the onset of COVID. This article is about travel vaccines that existed prior to the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this guide, I let you know my opinion and experiences, and I also provide plenty of information to help you form your own opinion about travel vaccines and decide which (if any) vaccines you need.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: Staying Healthy While Traveling – Natural Preventions and Cures<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Experiences with Travel Vaccines<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a Vaccine?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Different Categories of Vaccines<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential Risks of Vaccinations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonly Recommended Vaccinations for Travelers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Know What Travel Vaccines You Need<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where to Get Travel Vaccinations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t Forget Your Travel Insurance!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel Vaccination Resources<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Experiences with Travel Vaccines<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’m just going to come out and say it: I personally don’t believe in getting vaccinated to the hilt before traveling.<\/span> Post-COVID Note: This is not to say I’m an “anti-vaxxer” nor am I opposed to vaccinations in general. I got vaccinated and boosted (despite a seething dislike of needles), and I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories in general<\/em>. What I’m referring to here are getting ALL the travel vaccines you could possibly need before ever leaving your home country. I think that is overkill, and I think there’s an element of unnecessary fear that is instilled in people about the world outside one’s home country’s borders being inherently dangerous. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years ago (in my pre-Professional-Hobo days<\/a>), I took a vacation to South Africa. Knowing I’d be in malaria-land and visiting various spots with potential for exotic ailments, I visited a travel clinic in Canada and asked what I needed to do.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The doctor gave me a list of \u201chighly recommended\u201d vaccinations, including (but not limited to) the full range of hepatitis shots, malaria medication, and a yellow fever shot just for good measure. In addition to the travel clinic visit charges, this amounted to hundreds of dollars in vaccinations requiring multiple visits.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I balked at the hepatitis vaccination regime, the doctor put a map of the world in front of me.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the blue countries on this map are countries that have a hepatitis problem. So really, if you want to travel anywhere at all, you should have these vaccines,\u201d he said, logically.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just about every country on the map was blue, except for North America.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I told a friend visiting from the UK what happened, he said \u201cIsn’t that funny. Before I started my trip, I went to a travel clinic in the UK. They put that same map in front of me! Except every country on my map was blue except for Europe!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hmm.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hepatitis exists around the world. Granted in some countries it’s more of a going concern than in others. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why the push for vaccinations only if we travel? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could just be that that\u2019s when people are asking about vaccines, so that\u2019s when it comes up.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a conspiracy theorist could have a field day with this topic, with suggestions of travel vaccinations not only being a money-grab, but also wider theories about the alternate agendas of pharmaceutical companies, or even certain societal \u201cfear mongering\u201d tactics about travel.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but neither will I totally dismiss the idea that not all travel vaccinations are recommended with our best intentions as the first priority.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll admit, when I walked into the travel clinic before my trip to South Africa, I was already leery of travel vaccinations. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years prior, a friend of mine was going to Africa to do some aid work. She got all the recommended travel vaccinations (which were many), and then, because of a complication with one of the vaccinations, she spent six months paralyzed from the waist down. I don’t know the specifics of what happened, but was led to believe that it was a rare complication that can occur with one of the vaccinations she got.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world of playing the odds (as we do), you might say she had a greater chance of contracting whatever disease she was being vaccinated against, than experiencing this complication \u2013 thus validating the vaccination. But if the chances of contracting said disease was remote to begin with, and especially after hearing of this story, it made me wonder how wholly necessary many travel vaccinations are to begin with.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I decided to do some research.<\/span>
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What is a vaccine?<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According the the World Health Organization<\/span><\/a> (WHO), a vaccine is \u201ca biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and “remember” it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So basically, when you get a flu vaccine, they\u2019re giving you an inert version of the flu, so that, if you encounter flu bacteria in your day-to-day life later on, your body can recognize it easily and overcome it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also why some people feel \u201cflu-y\u201d after getting a flu shot. No, the vaccine didn\u2019t give you the flu. It\u2019s just your immune system learning how to respond to the disease. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: Everything You Need to Know about Travel Insurance<\/a>, complete with full glossary of terms in plain language<\/em>

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The Different Categories of Vaccines<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three different categories of travel vaccinations that you\u2019ll encounter: routine, recommended, and required. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this section, I go over the three categories and the common vaccinations you often find in each one. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Routine Vaccines<\/b><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many of us remember getting our booster shots as kids. It\u2019s thanks to these that diseases like <\/span>polio<\/span><\/a> only exist in history books in most of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But depending on what year you were vaccinated and what vaccines were available at the time, where you grew up, or what your parents believed, you may or may not have received all the routine vaccinations that are given to kids today. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As many of these diseases are still a problem in some countries, depending on where you\u2019re traveling and if you got these routine vaccinations as a kid, your doctor may recommend these vaccinations before you go on your trip.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Routine vaccinations often recommended to travelers (for booster or renewal or to make sure they got it in the first place) include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n