BootsnAll Travel Community

I hope I'm not rehashing this thread or beating a dead horse, but after searching the BnA forums for info on travel vacs/immunizations, the advice seems to be all over the map.

First, let me say that I plan on travelling to anywhere and everywhere - likely every continent except Antarctica. I live in the U.S. I tend to err on the side of caution - I'm happy to spend an extra $100 if it means it'll save my hide against [insert pretty rare disease here].

I just have a few questions:

1) Any solid estimates on the costs? After searching the BnA forums, I found costs ranging between $50-700 for the same vacs. I know I can just call my GP, but I have no idea where to look beyond that to "comp shop" pricing.

2) Should I take the CDC.gov website as the gospel truth when looking for recommendations on what vacs to get, depending on the countries I plan to visit? Is there a better site for similar info?

3) Any recommendations on which ones I should get? Again, I'll be travelling to Europe, Asia, South America, Central America, NZ, Australia, pretty much all over the place.

Thanks in advance for your help!

The critical ones to get are:

Hep A/B. $30 x 3

Typhoid. ~ $50 x 1

Yellow fever (for Africa) $?

Malaria pills. (Vary a lot. Max is Malarone at $3-6/pill; 1 pill daily in high risk areas)

Optional:

Rabies: $180 x 3

Japanese B Encephalitis: $120 x 3

You might need some others (eg// Meningitis), but those are the most common. Those are the prices I was quoted at my travel clinic in Canadian dollars, but it should be comparable in the US.

It's also cheaper if you get your GP to write you a perscription for the vaccines so you can buy them yourself, and just get him/her to inject them. Ask.

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Cool. Thanks for the numbers, Christine.

Those numbers definitely help.
Do you know how far in advance you should start receiving the shots? do you need a certain amount of time before you start traveling?
Thanks a bunch, Im feelin a bit overwhelmed attempting to organize all the info for this trip.

You'll need to book an appointment with your nearest Travel Clinic, and they tend to book a few weeks in advance... especially in the winter when travel to warm (malarial) areas is high.

You should be fine if you get your immunizations 6 weeks before you depart. Usually the vaccines only take a maximum of 10 days to be effective, but some vaccines (Hep A/B, Jap Enc B) require 4 weeks to get all the necessary shots.

...Actually, the TwinRix vaccine I got for Hep A/B required 6 months for all three shots, but you're fine with just the first 2 which are given about 4 weeks apart (I think).