kacollier

We are heading to Sri Lanka and mainly visiting the Cultural Triangle, then Elkaduwa & Kandy. Our local travel clinic will not discuss needs and requires an actual appointment (not covered by insurance), but the CDC mentions a yellow fever vaccine is required if coming from infected countries and the possibility of malaria in rural areas. We are coming from US with short stop in Singapore. All our other vaccinations are up-to-date (hepatitis, tetunus, polio, etc).....is there anything we need for Sri Lanka? Hoping prior visitors will weigh in on this topic.

Kathie

Unless you are stopping in parts of South America or Africa, you do not need a yellow fever vaccine.

Are you up to date on typhoid? That one is wise for any tropical area, as it's a food and water-borne illness.

When I went to Sri Lanka, antimalarials were recommended. According to both the cdc and the nhs, they are no longer are they recommended for places you are visiting, only for some remote areas in the north.

crellston

Iwas there in feb this year and checked with my local nhs clinic who advised that malaria prophylacticS were NOT required for where you are visiting. As kathie says thyphoid highly recomended as is tetanus etc.

kacollier

Is typhoid really necessary if we are mainly traveling in cities and eating at hotels/restaurants? This seems to be the only item missing and we are touring for only 6 days...then on to Maldives.

crellston

An extract from the NHS website:

Typhoid fever is a potentially fatal infection that causes diarrhoea and a high temperature (fever) of 38C (100.4F) or over. It is spread through contact with human faeces (stools), usually as a result of poor sanitation and personal hygiene.

High risk areas: typhoid is found throughout the world, but it is more likely to occur in areas where there is poor sanitation and hygiene. In particular, risk areas include Africa, the Indian subcontinent, South and South East Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America.

The typhoid fever vaccination is recommended for anyone who is travelling to a high risk area. In particular, it is recommended for people visiting the above areas who will:

be staying with, or visiting, the local population, or
have frequent, or prolonged, exposure to conditions where sanitation and food hygiene are likely to be poor.

Judge for yourself -If you feel 100% confident that food hygiene in all the places you are eating is excellent then don't bother. However,personally, I would be inclined to go for it as, even in upmarket ,it is unlikely that food hygiene will be to western standards.

Nutella

Based on my reading, I didn't use anti-malarials when I was in Sri Lanka a few months ago. But I became a bit nervous when I walked down the street in the town of Kataragama and saw a big sign for the Malaria Research Center

Kathie

ka, If you regularly travel in the tropics, you should have the typhoid vaccine. Like Hep A, it is a diseases of sanitation. In the US, where are people most likely to contract Hep A? In a restaurant.

Nutella, it wasn't that long ago tat anti-malarials were recommended for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is now considered low risk for malarial, but that isn't the same as no risk.

Mohammed

I am not a doctor but really don't think you need to worry too much about malaria. When I discussed this with an eminent doctor recently he was of the opinion that treatment of an rare case was preferred to drug based prevention options which are also fraught with bad side effects. Like Kathie mentions it is low risk.

What you must be aware is Dengue, this is more of a current concern and needs to be prevented by using mosquito repellents, coils, mats, nets etc. Dengue is generally more prevalent in cities/populated areas.