ateabag

Going to India & Bhutan in Jan & contacted my Dr to get Japanese encephalitis vaccine & pre-rabies. After they checked with supplier, I was told that the pre-rabies was in short supply giving on need basis which I confirmed on CDC. Was also told the same situation was with the Japanese encephalitis vaccine but was unable to confirm the shortage on CDC. Does anyone have any knowledge on this or should I contact the CDC? To be honest, I wonder if this is being skirted as a liability issue?? I have scheduled a yellow fever [had the first 10 years ago] in Oct but read about shortage with that. Should I be getting on a list now to wait for availabilty?? Thx again!

Kathie

Are you talking about vaccines for your India and Bhutan trip? If so, then Yellow Fever is not needed (there is no Yellow fever in Asia). If you are anticipating the need for a Yellow fever vaccine for a future trip to Africa or South America, then you should confirm what you need to do to insure that you can get the vaccine before your trip to Africa or South America.

I was not aware of a JE vaccine shortage, but it may be true. However, do you need JE vaccine for your trip? Typically, JE is recommended only for people who will be staying in a rural area for more than a month (or 6 weeks) depending on which guidelines you use.

Do you live near a medical school? If so, most medical schools have a travel or tropical medicine clinic. These clinics can asses with you exactly which vaccines you ned, recommend appropriate anti-malarials, etc. They also have good access to vaccines and may be able to get vaccines more readily than your primary care doc.

Kathie

I just read through the notices to health care workers on the cdc website. There is a notice about possible JE vaccine shortages.

Also, in the reorganization of the cdc info, I did not see the usual caveats about when a traveller does/does not need the JE vaccine. JE is transmitted via the mosquito through pigs and ducks. So it is only a risk in rural farming areas where pigs and duck are raised. JE is very rare in travelers. Only in cases where you expect to be in a rural farming area for at least 4-6 weeks should the vaccine be considered. So persons going to volunteer on farms, cyclists traveling for months through rural areas, etc, are examples of travelers who would want to consider the JE vaccine.

pdupka

I was just in Laos for almost a month. I was advised to get the JE vaccines (a series of three). I got them through a travel clinic, no problem. They were expensive, however. I was advised that JE had increased in Asia recently due to global warming.

ateabag

Thx again for your kind replies. I called the CDC & they had no info on the JE vaccine but gave me the # to call the vaccine maker. They said that they are discontinuing making that vaccine & another company is trying to get approval to make that one. That said, they are guessing how much vaccine they need to make & stockpile til this happens. I have heard varying things from the clinics but what seems to be the common thread is that if they did not order it long ago or have it in their possession, they seem unable to get it. At least this is what I am told. This does not seem to be a vaccine that is often given & it is expensive so from what I gather is not one they don't ordinarily keep on hand but order it in when necessary. After a zillion phone calls, I only found one clinic that had the series of JE and am the process of getting it as it recommended for many of the places I want to travel and some rural-I will be on a houseboat in Kerala for 5 days. I was told that even two injections of JE vaccine give one 85% immunity-booster needed every two years.
The pre-exposure rabies vaccine I was told is in short supply by the CDC and they hope to have it available later even perhaps this month. I did find a clinic that had one dose left but not the whole series.
Yellow fever vaccine was available by the same clinic so I got that as it is good for 10 years and Africa is on my travel radar again.