buzymom3

Hi
I am getting so much crazy information. I looked at the CDC website and see that Hepatitis A and Typhoid and Malaria are all suggested for the places we are going.

BUT then it says Cholera and Japanese Encephalitis along with Rabies are recommended for some travelers.

What shots did you get when you went to Asia? I called one doc and he wanted to give me a whole shopping list that would have cost me over $1400! Another travel doc just said Hep A, typhoid and malaria.

I am traveling with my 2 girls ages 22 and 25.

We are in Chiang Mai for 3 1/2 days, in Siem Reap for 2 days and in Beijing for 4 days.
My youngest will be spending a month in Beijing. We doing a little jungle trekking with the elephants at Elephant Nature with a special program but only for a day.

Thanks so much!

lindygirl

Hep A for sure, especially if you plan to partake in some street food. According to the CDC site, even typhoid is recommended. I think you need malaria if you're going to any jungle area.

I had Hep A and typhoid vaccines when I went to Chiang Mai and I went to Elephant Nature Park (it's a rehabilitation park, you don't get to ride them).

I've also been to Shanghai and Siem Reap and I don't remember getting any vaccinations other than hep A and possibly typhoid.

When I've gone to the travel clinic for shots, they recommend rabies if you're going to interact with wildlife (like monkeys . I had no plans so I didn't get any other shots.

Just don't drink any tap water (or get ice in your drinks) and you should be fine. In Cambodia and Thailand, I even brushed my teeth with bottled water. China, I brushed with tap.

Happy trip planning!

Kathie

You will not need Cholera and Japanese Encephalitis. If you read the fine print on the cdc site, you will see that cholera is recommended only for those who are working in refugee camps or similar and JE only for those spending 6 weeks or more in rural farming areas where there are both ducks and pigs.

You should get typhoid vaccine, as it is a food and water borne illness like Hep A.

Look carefully at the anti-malarial recommendations. For the specific places you are going, anti-malarials are not recommended.

It sounds like you spoke with a for-profit travel medicine clinic. They often recommend all kinds of things that are unnecessary. Run from any clinic that does that. Someone here reported that such a clinic recommended the Yellow Fever vaccine for SE Asia. When I hear things like that, I want to report the clinic and get the providers licenses pulled!

Go back and re-read the cdc site. Learning how to read such recommendations will be helpful to you when your next travel and is good self-defense against for-profit travel clinics.

I'm sure you will all have a wonderful time in my favorite part of the world - SE Asia.

temppeternh

> What shots did you get when you went to Asia?

This is not the place to be asking this question. The only people to ask are the experts, and the CDC site (and similar sites run by the health authorities of other countries), or tropical medicine specialists, are the only people to ask. The right answer is not a matter of majority vote by non-professionals, and if your preference is already not to have much if anything done then confirmation bias will simply lead you to pick the answer you like. But this is like asking, 'Did anyone else run across the road without looking?' and when someone says 'Yes' then thinking that makes it a good idea for you, too.

Stay away from user-contributed websites. Ask the (non-profit) experts.