Urgent: Innoculations at the last minute?

Jessica M T

Hello everyone. I've enjoyed reading all your useful and insightful advice and I'm hoping someone can help.

My boyfriend and I are going to be in Delhi for a few days and will spend one month in Rishikesh.
I have never been vaccinated for anything but have been doing some research and I'm getting nervous and reconsidering going to India without any vaccinations. We leave in two weeks!! Can anyone advise? Which are most important?

Also, I will have some herbal tinctures with me, with an alcohol base, will I be able to pack these in my bags for India?

What liquids are banned from CHECK IN luggage?

Thanks x 1000000

Nick-H

Welcome to Indiamike.

Offered with the best intentions, your first lesson in getting the best out of the site...

'Urgent!' means your in trouble. So does 'Help!'. But mainly, it doesn't give your readers much of a clue what you are looki8ng for. Don't worry; you're not the first, and are definitely won't be the last, no big deal...

The following may be less helpful, but its the best I can do...

The place to get best advice on innoculations is your doctor or travel clinic. You'll find them listed in every guide book, I guess, and you will find heaps of discussion of such subjects here, but that is what it is, discussion! You need qualified professional advise, which we are unable to give.

As it is probably already too late to get those innoculations that require more than one jab, or time to settle in, I suggest you get yourself to said clinic right now (time zones allowing).

For what you can take on an airplane, again , the best thing is to check the websites of the airline you're flying with, the airport you are leaving from, or does that TSA that you have in your country to make fliers' lives hell have a website of its own? These regulations are best checked at source.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

crvlvr

Have you tried staring the Center for Disease Control Website? : Health Information for Travelers to India

There are limits to only the quantity of liquids you can take in hand luggage, not the type of liquids.

anubisgrau

no liquids are banned from checked baggage, but all the liquids are banned from your hand baggage. there you go - hope you can survive a flight without.

re vaccines, just relax and enjoy india. don't fall into paranoia spread by the LP and alikes. just take care of a good hygiene, wash your hands always before food and after. by no means use bottled water ONLY and ALWAYS - never trust a filtered water or water left as a courtesy of a hotel next to your bed if it is not bottled.

the same goes to anti-malaria tablets. as long as you don't go to wet jungles known for malaria, just take care that you use a good mosquito repellant. you even don't need to take any western products with you, there's great natural things for this, such as a citronella extract.

SteamBuff

You ARE allowed to carry liquids/creams/lotions etc in your hand/cabin baggage but there are certain restrictions

The following is from the British Airways web site


The North American liquid policy

The Transportation Security Administration in the USA and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority relaxed the restrictions in September 2006 on the carriage of liquids through airport security searches on flights departing airports in the USA and Canada.

Customers may take with them in their cabin bag limited quantities of liquids, gels and aerosols, including travel-size toiletries such as shampoo, suntan lotion, creams, toothpaste, hair gel and hair spray. Containers holding liquids must not exceed three American ounces or 90ml. Liquid containers must be carried in a separate clear plastic zip-top bag that does not exceed 20cm x 20cm, or 8 inches x 8 inches, or quart size. Items must fit in the bag comfortably and the bag must be completely closed. At the security search, the plastic bag must be removed from the cabin bag and x-ray screened separately. Customers carrying liquids may be subject to secondary searches before boarding.


Countries that do not allow any liquids in hand baggage

The following countries do not permit liquids, gels or cosmetics at all in passenger hand baggage:

Egypt
India
Jamaica
Kenya
Pakistan
St Lucia

You CAN catch malaria in any area in India where there are mozzi's even the cities esp if there is standing water. (With the exception of mountain area's)

Speak to your Doctor or Travel clinic for professional advice.

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Nick-H

You are strongly advised to take professional advice, and not trust anything you may read on a travel website. That is the 'official' advice of this site.

Whilst some posters may be well informed, others are not, and nobody here is giving professional advice.

Jessica M T

Just wanted to thank you! Will take care not to freak anyone out with titles such as 'urgent!!'
Your advice was great and it was helpful for me to have a different perspective.
Does anyone have any experience or know of the High Banks Peasant Cottage in Rishikesh?
I hope it is ok for me to keep you in mind for other questions. It's reassuring and helpful to be in contact with people who've had these experiences already.

edwardseco

Even though I am not that kind of doctor I will suggest as basic insurance: Hepatitis A & B or at least A (my brother in law caught this, grim). Typhoid comes as a pill in some countries so that is a no-brainer (grimmer disease). Tetanus you may already have as an all around good idea. The rest are somewhat of a judgement call, IMHO. I like the CDC site. Just use careful thinking. When I first went the Doctor noticed an outbreak of plague in Gujarat and since I was going to Maharashtra he decided I should get protected! Since it was the only dose regionally available it does seem wacky in retrospective..

amarama

What exactly is professional advice? Professional advice is someone parroting what they were told is the right thing to say. Here in the great USofA if a doctor tell you something that is not what he was told to say, they can be sued. So in my opinion, you came to exactly the right place for advice- which is that vaccines are crap, are very dangerous, and are part of a corrupt medical system. I am quilified to say this because, i have researched the subject matter very thoughly. A short trip to utube should show you all you need to know to make an INFORMED choice. The truth about vaccines is now becoming very clear. They have dangerous side affects. Enjoy your trip, you will have an incredible time in India,,and I wish I could go with...

camelgirl

Listen to Nick-H & Edwardseco about the health question. Another good site: http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destin...sia/india.html

Unfortunately, as you realize, you should have started one to 2 months before this trip but you can still get going with some of them.

I would add polio to my list of "must get" vaccines. It is still endemic in India.

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Nick-H

Yes, vaccines are not without controversy, but two weeks before you go to a country where it is possible to catch some unpleasant diseases is just too late to start arguing the basics.

My personal response is to say that all forms of immunisation (colloquially, 'vaccines') are crap and dangerous is a pretty crap and dangerous generalisation. There are certainly valid arguments and objections to specific products.

I'd also comment, in passing, that I'm old enough to remember school friends dieing from polio, and that disease still exists in India, as Camelgirl comments. I don't know about USA, but people of my age and younger will have received polio immunisation.

My wife is a smallpox survivor; a rare breed!

OK, to slightly change sides --- I think one of the Hep vaccines has potential very nasty side-effects, and should be taken by anyone who is not specifically at risk. Edwardseco?

Rabies is generally only recommended for those who will be working with animals, or staying in a rural situation where medical attention may not be available immediately. It doesn't prevent the, still lethal, disease, but buys you a little extra time to start the treatment.

Give or take a dodgy product, I do believe in immunisation. But I have to admit that mine are all out of date... Hmmm...

wonderwomanusa

I dunno about side effects, but I caught Hep B in India and now have a permanently damaged liver. I believe I got it from a Cholera vaccination I had to have there ... no longer in use, but at the time it was necessary for crossing certain borders.

Anything can happen in India, and I'd advise the combined Hep A&B vaccine, because you could get type B from a blood transfusion, among other methods.

Yes, most people in the USA have had polio vacciantions, but those of us old enough to have had Salk's vaccine (in the 50s) need are advised to be re-vaccinated.

Jessica, ask the folks at the travel clinic; they are more up-to-date than your family doctor, in most cases. My MD has never been out of the US -- I wouldn't trust her advice on this.

Mickey S

You obtain your medical advice from utube?

capt_mahajan

Fortunately my slow connection does not permit that.

karuna

There are people dying for want of vaccines. I'm sorry but it makes me mad when people start calling Evil Big Pharma, when millions of lives have been saved because of vaccines and millions more lost for the lack of them.

Recent results of people shunning or having no access to vaccines:
Outbreak of mumps in Scotland
Mumps outbreak in Midwest US
Polio on the rise in Africa

So if you use vaccines you put yourself at a risk of adverse reactions that have been studied and measured (I would have to see peer-reviewed papers showing RCT trials backing up any theory on this, btw, not a youtube upload). Polio has a 100% chance of severe consequences. I know which I would choose.