Hello,
I was just wondering which vaccinations are needed for travel in India. Also, I read in the news today that there has been an outbreak of encephalitis in Utter Pradesh, which is where I believe my tour, and many others are going to, or near... So what can we do about this?
Thanks,
Mandy
vaccinations for India?
Re: vaccinations for India?
Hi Mandy,
I'll start by saying the usual: Ask your doctor or Tropics Insitute for specifics on medical issues...
I'm going on the Rajasthan Explorer starting Nov 5 and got myself vaccinated against rabies specifically for that trip and I already had vaccinations against hepatitis and polio/diphtheria/tetanus.
After reading your post I checked my local Institute for Tropical Diseases' web page:
They also reported a number of Jap. Encephalitis cases in Uttar Pradesh and Nepal but state that
a) mainly children and elderly people are at risk - 95% of infections go unnoticed
b) that the virus is mainly transmitted in rural areas where you find both rice fields (for the mosquitoes) and pigs (for the virus)
They summarize by saying that the WHO recommends a vaccination only for visits of more than four weeks in rural areas in rainy season.
As none of this applies to our tours I don't worry about it. Besides, the vaccine isn't approved in my country so I would have difficulties obtaining it anyway.
I hope this helps - enjoy your trip!
Regards
Mark
Re: vaccinations for India?
Hello,
Thanks for the email.
When travelling to foreign countries it
Re: vaccinations for India?
Hi! As already mentioned, best thing to do is to get advice from your local GP or better still a travel clinic. You'll definitely be recommended to get Hep A, Typhoid, Polio, Tetanus, and Diptheria. You should also consider malaria tablets. Rabies & Jap Encephalitis are usually only recommended if you're going to be in the country for a longer period of time. Although there was indeed an outbreak, JapEnc is spread by mosquitos and is far more prevalent in the monsoon season (which you're missing). I'm having rabies & jap enc as well as meningitis vaccinations but I'm staying for several months and working in the slums. It's all about weighing up benefit versus risk. The JapEnc vaccinations seem to be somewhat controversial. I suspect you wont need them if you're only doing the tour and if you're travelling outwith the monsoon. Make sure you see a Doctor well in advance (at least 6 weeks) as many vaccinations involve a course of jabs that need to be given over a period of time.