Which jabs are needed for Thailand?

[admin]

My daughter is going to Bangkok and travelling to Chiang Mai in August. She has contacted her GP who says the cost of vaccinations amounts to approximately £460. This is a great deal of money, I would be grateful if you would advise me what vaccinations are needed.

Dr Richard Dawood, travel medicine expert, replies

Your daughter’s experience sounds like a bad case of tick-box disease: someone has looked up every possible vaccine that might be given to a person travelling to Thailand, without considering the risks your daughter will actually face, or giving her enough information to consider how she might want to spend her money. If her childhood jabs are up to date, she might need typhoid and hepatitis A protection – and for a short trip, that might suffice.

There might also be a case for vaccinating her against rabies (animal bites are common in Thailand) and hepatitis B (transmissible by medical/dental treatment, sex, tattooing, body piercing etc). The most expensive vaccine option is against Japanese encephalitis, a viral infection spread by mosquitoes that have bitten small farm animals, so mainly a risk in a rural setting, and not something we would routinely give tourists on short trips to the usual tourist spots.

More importantly, your daughter needs a sensible and thorough discussion of health risks and precautions generally, of which vaccines are only a small part. For the record, typhoid, hepatitis A, rabies (three doses) and hepatitis B (three doses), at my own clinic would have cost £335, including three 30-minute appointments with a doctor or specialist travel nurse, though not including the vaccination against Japanese encephalitis (which we would have offered only if we thought she was at high risk).

via Which jabs are needed for Thailand? – Telegraph.