Did you ever really think about the number of medicines you need to take to visit India? I went to the TravelWell Clinic at Emory University's Crawford Long Hospital yesterday. OK, so I had the tetanus booster during my annual physical in February and didn't need that yesterday. But, I did get hepatitis A and hepatitis B shots as the first round....have to go back in about a month. I also got a polio booster, a prescription for malaria medication, a prescription for Cipro (in case of "Delhi Belly"), and a 4 day vaccine for Typhoid Fever that I need to keep refrigerated and take once a day every other day for 8 days.
They told me that I could skip the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine since I won't need to put myself at that risk. Evidently the risk of complications from the shot is high enough that if you are not necessarily going to be exposed to the disease, you should skip the shot....but the papers on this illness say that 30% of those who contract it die, and another 30% suffer permanent brain damage...oh, joy!
I was also told that rabies is rampant (and they don't pre-treat in any way for that, maybe need to see my vet...(just kidding)) and I was told to stay away from birds since Avian flu is traveling thru the country. (They probably mostly don't want anyone bringing it back to the US). Knowing, however, what people might be like on a long flight, you never know who will be next to you, I might rather take my chances sitting next to a bird than some who knows who on those long flights.
Off to take the next typhoid capsule...
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