Vaccination

leanstotheright

Hi!
My wife and I will be in India soon and we need to get vaccinations. It would cost us $600 each to get them done here, does anybody know if it is safe to get them in India and if so, where we can get them done around Cochin or Bangalore? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Alex

Liisa

I am not sure, but I think at least with some of the vaccinations it takes time before they are actually effective, I am leaving to India in 2 and half weeks and I've already taken my vaccinations, which were, by the way, totally free here in Finland except for hepatitis, which was 40 euros. How can they be so expensive over there?

Kind regards, Liisa

Mickey S

Vaccinations may not be fully effective for some time after receiving them, and you should certainly have them before leaving Australia. Waiting until you get to India is, in my view, rather self-defeating.

Is that $600 for both of you? If so, that sounds about right - I think I paid £120 (about $275) for all my vaccinations here in London a couple of years ago, and a further £150 on top for a full course of rabies jabs.

EDIT: Sorry - just re-read your post, properly this time. $600 each? Does that include rabies? Or are they using disposable gold-plated syringes?

machadinha

Prices just seem to vary per country.

However I wouldn't let that be a consideration to get them once you're there, for all the stated reasons. It would mean you'd be unprotected at the start of your holiday, and possibly for weeks thereafter. If you need to economize, don't do it on your health, please.

Other than that, you could walk up to any hospital there and get the jabs you want.* But again: Don't. This is mostly useful if you're late with a booster shot, say.

* Note: Not at all as easy as it sounds, having just arrived and walking around jetlagged and culture-shocked and trying to find your bearings. Anyway and once more: It shouldn't even be a consideration. Just don't. To repeat: Many vaccines need some time to kick in. Speak to your tropical health clinic, or google around some for vaccine stipulations (and noting that those, too, tend to vary per country -- that is, the country where you get them. Some googling shouldn't replace a visit to the doctor in any case.)

There's a couple of travel health sites in the "links" link in my signature to get you started. There are any number of such sites, your own health organizations will have them.

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leanstotheright

Thank you all for the input. It would be ideal to get vaccinations before going to India, I never thought otherwise. My only concern was balancing the expense of vaccination verses the risk.
For example, vaccination against malaria is relatively expensive but in December and January, the months during which I will be in India, there are few mosquitoes. So, the risk of catching malaria is relatively small.
In Australia, private insurance companies do not cover vaccination of any kind. Six hundred dollars is a lot of money, I am just curious if certain vaccinations are not as vital as others in a country like India.

freenote

Quick note ,there is no vaccination available for protection against Malaria .

Nick-H

There is no vaccination against malaria (apart from something pretty new which is still under trial somewhere in Africa).

Anti-malarial drugs have to be started before the trip, and taken for a while afterwards too.

You may, or may not elect to take malaria prophylaxis. Reading the many threads on the subject here might help. (Or it might not )

<crossposted with freenote>

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leanstotheright

Sorry about that, thank you for correcting me. I meant to say tablets against malaria.

machadinha

It is a lot of money. But still, even weighing the pros and cons of individual vaccines I'd rather discuss with my doctor and/or by studying some informed travel health resources, than with some strangers on a board. There'll be as many opinions as there are users here. (No! Yes! You must and you mustn't! Etc.)

I hear of some countries that apparently prescribe some stuff that has me wondering. But... better safe than sorry & all that. Dying of some silly disease just because I told you so won't make you feel any better I'm sure, and you may well wish you'd spent those extra dollars instead.

Nick-H

Easy mistake. Only some people really think there is a vaccine.

Hopefuly, one day, there may be; apparently progress is being made

fajitanumerouno

While the vaccinations for my family seemed kind of expensive when you weigh in what a hugh disappointment it would be to become terribly sick either during the trip or once you get home in hospital it is kind of like buying insurance a bit. Many other things could make you sick sure but at least you can rule out some major ones.

Very important, need a few weeks for shots to make your body build sufficient anti-bodies or something along those lines. Getting them there would not help much really unless you are going to be there for 6 months. Maybe taking the anti-malarials you could wait and buy there and be super careful for a week.

Val

machadinha

Very true. Having your vacation ruined by even some minor disease let alone repatriation could work out rather more costly and frustrating. There are plenty of diseases there that you can do nothing against, why not rule out the ones that you can. (That is not at all to say I get inoculated against the lot, but those are my decisions.)

Again: I know all about economizing, I just don't think your personal health is the best place to start (but that's arguably easy for me to say, most vaccines here fall under public health insurance, and the others aren't so costly).

Nick-H

It's worth a reminder that these are not diseases that can ruin your vacation only ---there's plenty of far less serious ones that can do that!

These are diseases than take months or years out of your life, or worse.

--- another reminder to self to get mine up to date!

wonderwomanusa

Depends on which anti-malarial you take. Doxycycline has few side effects and $10 will get you more than 90-days' supply.

There are a fair number of diseases available in India for which there are no vaccines, so I always get whatever jabs I need. And if you travel elsewhere, well, the vaccines are ususally good for several years -- saves you the trouble and expense next time.

Laanisa

I got all my jabs for free at the NHS here in London, no waiting, very efficient etc. Well, i didn't get Hepatitis B or Rabies jabs,and they do charge for them...how about you guys, would you go to India withiut the two or am I taking a big risk?

Going soon!