[OGNorCal707]

Hey I'm heading out to South East Asia in a few weeks, and will spend about 1.5 months in Thailand and another 1.5 months between Laos and Cambodia. Recently my parents have started to trip out about diseases over there and what not, and my Dad wants me to get a bunch of vaccinations and take malaria pills.

I know this may sound naive, but I hadn't really thought too much about this, and I am typically on an "organic/natural" lifestyle trip, so the idea of getting a bunch of shots/pills does not appeal to me. But, on the other hand I don't want to get violently ill from dengue fever, malaria, or whatever. Additionally, I live in a very isolated place and haven't seen a doctor in seriously like 10 years, so I'm not sure where to go for all of this.

Finally, to address my question, has anyone traveled to that part of the world and can say whether all these vaccinations are really necessary? Any advice or two cents would be appreciated.

[Aliblahba]

I highly recommend vaccinations for travel to SE Asia.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/list.aspx


I'm required to be vaccinated for up to and including Anthrax. Do some serious research concerning malaria pills. We were required to buy these to deploy but the healthcare providers stated under their breath that they wouldn't take them. One side effect is liver failure.

Cheers,
Ali

[oldnemesis]

(11-12-2010 02:01 PM)OGNorCal707 Wrote:  

Hey I'm heading out to South East Asia in a few weeks, and will spend about 1.5 months in Thailand and another 1.5 months between Laos and Cambodia.

Are you going to stay in like Bangkok, Siem Reap and Vientiane, or you're going to hike through the jungle? In the first case I doubt you need any vaccination at all. In the second case you don't need it either, as you'll face much worse issues than a dengue fever.

It is beneficial to get boosts for those vaccines which are out of date, like Tetanus. Hep A/Hep B vaccines are very useful, but if you don't have them, it is probably too late (you need three vaccines, second in a month and third in five months to be protected).

There is no vaccine against dengue fever nor malaria.

[gringoed]

Malaria pills killed my sex drive when I was in Brazil. I won't take them again unless maybe in Africa. Take your chances with malaria.

[Lumiere]

Likewise.

I have been to all 3 of those places this year.

I didn't bother with any vaccines or medicines.

[OSL]

A girl I know just died from Malaria by going to Africa without pills, dont take the chance.

[oldnemesis]

(11-13-2010 01:48 AM)gringoed Wrote:  

Malaria pills killed my sex drive when I was in Brazil. I won't take them again unless maybe in Africa. Take your chances with malaria.

Which pills did you use? A lot of Russians I know who travel to Africa use Doxycycline for malaria prevention, which is a common antibiotic and it should not affect your sex drive at all.

[Entropy4]

I haven't had a vaccination in years and have spent the majority of the last year in South America and SE Asia and am fine.

A girl I know went to Africa and got malaria WHILE taking malaria pills... moral of the story... don't go to shit holes in Africa.

[iknowexactly]

(11-14-2010 01:23 AM)Entropy4 Wrote:  

I haven't had a vaccination in years and have spent the majority of the last year in South America and SE Asia and am fine.

A girl I know went to Africa and got malaria WHILE taking malaria pills... moral of the story... don't go to shit holes in Africa.

If you go to a doctor they should have a list of countries and which bugs you might catch there and which vaccines to take.

I told my doc I was going to Ukraine and we warned me they had dipheria sometimes there. He said it was horrible, you sort of drown in your own mucous.

I read a little, diptheria vaccination protection only lasts 10 years, death rate is 10%.

So I got the vaccination.

I've heard you can still catch a long lasting ailment though, an addiction to sucking 20-year-old Russian pussy. Might be hard to withdraw.

[oldnemesis]

(11-17-2010 06:47 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

I told my doc I was going to Ukraine and we warned me they had dipheria sometimes there. He said it was horrible, you sort of drown in your own mucous.
I read a little, diptheria vaccination protection only lasts 10 years, death rate is 10%.

Same for Tetanus, which is even worse than diphtheria (mortality rates reported vary from 48% to 73%). That's why you should get a DT vaccine booster (for diphtheria and tetanus) every ten years.