Vaccinations are something to have when travelling to certain parts of the world to minimise the risk of disease, infections and illness whilst travelling, I’m not talking about a little upset stomach for a few days or dehydration. To me, there’s little point travelling around the world spending time confined to bed, in a hospital or worse still having to cut the trip short and return home.
In the UK, there are plenty of travel clinics available, I used MASTA https://www.masta-travel-health.com and from experience they are professional and friendly. Last week I had a telephone consultation to discuss my travel plans and the relevant vaccinations required. It was quite a long list, but the good news is that the yellow fever vaccination I had 10 years ago is valid for life so that saved me £62, which was nice. I’m not going to list the prices of the vaccinations below as these can be found on the MASTA website.
These are the vaccinations I needed to have:
Cholera
Diphtheria
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Japanese Encephalitis
Malaria
Tetanus
Typhoid
Rabies Booster
Mid May I had 4 injections, 2 in each arm, Rabies booster, Typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis and Hepatitis B and I can tell you despite feeling like a pin cushion, I have a ‘dead arm’ but that should subside shortly. I also had Cholera vaccination orally, and this morning cost me £324 including some malaria medication.
The bad news is that I need to revisit the clinic in a months time for the remainder of the vaccinations, so am expecting another bill of approximately £300 again. Still, think the investment is worth it in the long run.
A month later in mid-June, I revisited the excellent local pharmacy (Dukes Pharmacy in Crowthorne, Berkshire) for the second dose of vaccinations; Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Japanese Encephalitis, Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio. What was really refreshing is that the pharmacy / travel clinic actually took the time to treat me like a human being and expressed genuine interest in me and my travel plans, rather than treating me as a number in a transactional process.