Recommended vaccination for Asia trip
 

Hi guys,

I´m a European guy planning a trip to Asia in February (BKK, HKG, SIN, KL) and was wondering what is the recomended vaccination when doing a trip like this.
The trip will have a duration of 3 weeks more and less, and I've read a few informative web sites regarding this issue but most of them seem to play very safe and recomend a ton of vaccines to prevent illnesses.

Knowing that lots of persons who frequent this forum live in western countries I would like to know how you guys approach this theme?

Ask your primary care physician.

There are numerous resources on the Internet that can better assist you, including the US CDCs page and other governments' health agencies. If you google CDC and travel vaccines, you should find plenty of info.

You can also visit the Travel Safety and Security and Destinations forums, as this is not a miles and points question. Good luck.

Start here: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel.

I echo asking your PCP.

From my own experiences I have not received any vaccinations for HKG (been there 3x in the past 18 months most recently in March 2016), SIN (March 2016), or BKK (4x in past 18 months most recent June 2015).

I did receive vaccinations for China (PEK, PVG, CGK, CTU) last year (May/June 2015) and they also gave me a course of malarone because I was visiting Hua Hin on the same trip.

I have not been to KL so can't speak to that.

Unless you're going someplace weird, like in the yellow fever zone and even then I'm not sure, these countries don't seem to require any vaccinations nor does "Europe" to return, so it's a judgment call for a decision to be made by you and your doctor. This should somewhat depend on how you will travel, such as staying in places with air conditioning, eating street food, visiting friends in rural villages, etc. as well as on your general health and any special health issues you have. Ask also about malaria prevention, again depending on your specific details.

Many cities have specialized travel vaccination clinics that will be more up to date than a regular PCP. Your PCP/pharmacy also probably won't carry the less common vaccines.

Your physician will check the latest recommendations plus discuss your trip specifics with you. The recommendations will vary with your itinerary. In KL, for example, the recommendations will vary depending on whether you plan to visit the Petronas towers or the caves (where you may encounter bats or monkeys).

World Health Organization's vaccination recommendations:
http://www.who.int/ith/2016-ith-county-list.pdf?ua=1

This all depends on your risk tolerance. If it was me in your situation I would get everything recommended. But plenty of people don't and are fine. But having to get an emergency rabies shot really ruins your trip.

Thanks for all the feedback, after checking a few more sites I think I will "only" go with the hepatitis A and typhoid vaccines since I´m already vaccinated against the other more common disease.

I forgot to add some info on the first post, I´m asmathic and use regularly my inhalor and would like to hear the opinion of the experienced travelers about the air quality on the cities I will be travelling to (I´m planning on visiting the main atractions inside the cities).

I unfortunately can't give you advice about most of the cities you're visiting, but as someone with mild asthma (use a maintenance inhaler daily but have never had a hear attach), I found it difficult to breathe in cities with heavy motorbike traffic (for me, that was mostly Hanoi, Vietnam). I was only in Hong Kong for a 1-day layover, but did not have any problems there. There. After two days in Hanoi I purchased one of the face masks that many of the locals wear, and it improved my experience immensely.

Note: Kuala Lumpur has reported over 1,000 cases of dengue fever.

There are no vaccinations against dengue fever, but if you'll be exposed to day biting mosquitoes, wear long sleeve shirts and full length trousers (you can even treat them with permethrin / Permanone) and use an effective repellent.

Thi risk isn't high, but it's there, and it's higher in the rainy season.

I just returned from Sri Lanka; Colombo has a real dengue problem right now, but there was a stiff breeze and I took permethrin impregnated long sleeve shirt and used repellent and had no problems.

I've had both dengue and chikungunya fevers, so I'm perhaps a bit more aware than some. There's no actual cute, so you have to sit out several days of nasty symptoms with no more treatment than acetaminophen / paracetamol. In the old days dengue was called "breakbone fever" with reason; it's far from pleasant.

I grew up I. The tropics and had all my shots as a youngster, so perhaps that makes a difference, but I now travel to all the places you mention regularly and it has never occurred to me to get a special vaccination. These are modern cities, so you probably don't need to worry. If you are jungle trekking, it's a different story.

Most modern cities don't require vaccines, but a few may require caution - such as when Lima, which has fame for its ceviches, had a cholera outbreak. Ceviche was a prime carrier of contamination.

In fact, dengue fever is more likely in areas settled by humans. In Sri Lanka, where I was a week ago, the highest incidence of dengue was in the Colombo district. People are the prime purveyors of Aedes mosquito breeding places - empty flower pots, discarded tires, etc.