travelmad478

Everything I have ever heard about Japanese encephalitis vaccine is that it is not particularly effective; nor is the disease particularly prevalent. I've never been vaccinated for that, and have been to most of SE Asia without incident. Neither have I ever been vaccinated for rabies; I am fairly confident of my ability to avoid being bitten by a rabid animal (not that I have ever come across one). I have had the typhoid vaccine.

Hepatitis A and B, MMR, tetanus, and yellow fever vaccines seem quite important, as is malaria prophylaxis and trying very hard to stop mosquitoes from biting you. The rest is likely to be overkill, IMO.

mmamminna

Mostly cities, but in Bali staying at an Eco house, yoga, lalala they don't spray for anything like mosquitoes, or anything else.

CDTraveler

$380 per shot?

My vet does it for $35/per pet. Hard to believe it's 10x more expensive for a person. Call a local vet and ask where they got their shots as most vets get them due to working hands-on with animals.

mmamminna

SO, if I am immune according to the titer test, to all hepatitis and MMR, I shouldn't do it, correct?
The cdc sites do not mention malaria, how does the malaria work?
SO, you are saying yellow fever, thypiod fever, those are not the same correct?
All of the countries I checked have low risk of malaria, do I carry the pills just in case? Thanks again!

calbear2005

Christ, that's expensive. I, of course, don't know what type of health insurance you have, but if it's through Kaiser, they have a travel nurse that'll help out with all that, and the vaccines are $5-$25 each depending on if they're part of their formulary.

However, I've had to get hep A, typhoid, and Tdap shots/pills (in addition to the routine stuff you get as a kid) for the countries you listed (minus Indonesia and Laos) and stayed in large cities. Unless you're going to be handling or going to be in close proximity to animals, not sure you need the rabies vaccines. Check out the CDC's website for their recommendations.

For anti-malarial pills, they were recommended to me when I traveled to Myanmar, but I just sprayed on a ton of DEET instead and was OK.

travelmad478

Yellow fever and typhoid are not the same thing.

If you're only going to be in cities and use a lot of mosquito repellent, you can probably not bother with malaria prophylaxis, but if you're going to be in the countryside at all I'd take it. You can't just "carry pills;" you have to take them regularly, starting before the trip and finishing after it. There are several types of malaria prevention medications, including Lariam, malarone, and others; the type you take will vary by what geographic area of the world you're traveling to, because not all strains of malaria are the same. The various medications also have different dosage forms and different side effects.

sethweinstein

I do not think you need to worry about yellow-fever vaccination unless you are transiting an affected part of Africa on the way there. The only yellow fever in Asia is a handful of people in China who acquired it last year from Angola.

But you probably want to consider antimalaria pills unless you are staying urban, as others have said. They are expensive in the USA but I have gotten by with cheap doxycycline purchased in India and Thailand (as well as basic mosquito avoidance), taken daily from two days before travel to a month after. Of course, please do your own research as I am not a health specialist.

Seth

mmamminna

Guys, thanks for all the info, I am getting more and more confused... So, if I am to do Jakarta to Borobodur and the temples around and then Bali (not staying in touristy ares) and the rest are cities, except for Vietnam, Angkor Wat i Cambodgia, how do you consider those? They are touristy but are they rural? My first trip so not much experience. Thanks!

calbear2005

I get your concern regarding a trip with a vast array of different geographies. The best thing might be to make a list of places you intend to visit and then visit your primary physician. From my experience, for major SE Asian cities, you need hep A, typhoid, and Tdap. The other shots/pills mentioned here then depend on where else you plan to go. But, like I said, go see a doctor.

Loren Pechtel

Those last two are not recommended for the average traveler.

Loren Pechtel

I'd talk to a travel medicine guy, your average physician knows little of the risks.

GetSetJetSet

I always get all the recommended jabs, didn't stop me from getting the mumps earlier this month and subsequently giving it my girlfriend who was also vaccinated against it.

fgirard

I've had the MMR vaccine 4 times, and I don't have immunity to Measles, Mumps and Rubella (verified by titer). However, because I had the chicken pox, when they ran the titer, it was on the high end of the scale.

And Rabies vaccines is far better than the prophylaxis, which when I had to take it (bitten by a possum), was unpleasant as it required a massive needle and the injection site was in the belly.

Cityflyer10

+1. Unless you have already gotten them, tdap(usually covered by insurance), hep a, and typhoid will cover MOST situations. Depending on region and your personal travel plans, they may add on rabies, Japanese encephalitis, etc but as stated above, those are not usually recommended for simple tourist travels. The CDC country specific vaccine pages do a fair job at explaining it all

rubesl

We went to Peru 3/14/17 - 3/25 & were in Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, & Puerto Maldonado (Amazon jungle). Puerto is on the edge of the CDCs malaria & yellow fever warning area. We got typhoid & yellow fever vacs & are still taking Malarone (started one day before going to Puerto & have to keep taking seven days after). We already had Hep A & B, & Tdap. When we got to Puerto the Inkaterra rep taking us 45 min. up the Madre de Dios river announced they had no malaria, zika, etc. so we didn't have to take malaria pills. We all felt this was a tourism marketing ploy and we all continued our Malarone (better safe than sorry) - malaria has a seven day incubation period so most people would have gone home before symptoms develop & the people in the Puerto area (or the Inkaterra lodge) would never know about it.