Vaccination Cost and Timeframe?
 

Hey! My husband and I are planning a trip to India in Jan. 2009, and right now I'm trying to get an idea of how much the following vaccinations will cost (we have health insurance):
Malarone
Hep. A
Meningitis
Polio
Typhoid

and how far in advance should we begin getting them?

Any other India vaccination suggestions/tips would be welcome as well.

Also, do we really need a Hep. B vaccine for a 16-day trip?

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationIndia.aspx will be a good reference for you to read over before you visit your doctor or travel medicine specialist. Cost is highly variable, depending on what your insurance does and does not cover as well as the doctor/clinic you use.

Check with a travel medicine specialist.

Mine advised me to get my Hep A at least 4 weeks before leaving. A booster is required 1 year later.
Already got Hep B for college. A lot of schools require meningitis vaccines too.

Most vaccinations should be done at least 4-6 weeks in advance to have adequate levels of immunity before you leave. Remember, it's takes time for your body to develop immunity. And to look for adverse reactions from the shots.

Malarone is a drug for malaria prophylaxis, not a vaccination.

Check with your MD or local travel medicine specialist (my recommendation).

contact a travel clinic in your area and they will advise you...

call you health insurace to understand exactly what they will pay for....shots/pills can be very expensive... then you will also understand the timesframes exactly...

Good advice from all.

If you plan to do a lot of foreign travel, it's probably worth it to get the Hep A & B combination. If you do the follow-up boosters (one booster required for Hep A, two for Hep B alone or the combination vaccine) the vaccines are good for at least 20 years and may confer life-long immunity. Polio, you may or may not need a booster, depending on your vaccination history. Another vaccine you may or may not need a booster for is tetanus/diptheria, likewise for measles/mumps/rubella.

Typhoid vaccine comes as an oral vaccine which lasts 4-5 years or a shot which lasts 2 years.

Every medical insurance policy is different. For instance, I had to pay for the polio vaccine (the insurance didn't cover it) but none of the other injectable vaccines. I had to pay for the oral typhoid vaccine.

My husband and I went to a travel doctor last week. We had up-to- date childhood immunizations for the most part and just got the Hep A. He said that with a booster in six months it would be good for 20 years (I think he said 20 but might have been longer). Our insurance will not cover this. He did not recommend hep B for our 2 week trip to China.

He made a point of suggesting that we take mosquito repellent with at least a 30% DEP content.

we are having the 4 pill typhoid just now...our insurance covered it 100%.....we did not pay for the polio drink a couple of years ago however...

it just shows how different plans can be....

Good deal. I'm up-to-date on tetanus because I was bitten by an animal two years ago and I got it along w/rabies vaccine. However, I'm not sure if I have ever had the polio vaccine, I'm just 25 and I think they had stopped giving it routinely by 1983 (I'll still check records, but I know I need it anyway). Meningitis wasn't required for my university, so I know I need that one, too.

As for Hep. B, we don't intend to make more than 2 or 3 trips to Asia within the next 10 years or so, and given that we don't stay very long (good old American vacation time) or do adventure travel (things that would put us at higher risk for open wounds), I'm not sure if it's warranted. That said, if it's not much extra w/the Hep. A, we may just get it anyway.

I live in Los Angeles and have found a huge variation on prices depending upon where I look: There are many travel specialists in this area and prices can go from several hundreds of dollars to about $100.00, but my former husband got several covered by insurance for our '04 trip to Kenya. I basically it pays to comparison shop if you have the time.

Check your health insurance to see what they will cover. We had our first Hepatitis A/B at the health dept & then found out our insurance paid for it at the drs office. That saved us $108 the second time! The A/B combination wasn't that much more than just the A. We still need to get the Typhoid pills before our trip to China this summer & have to get those at the health dept.

Whe I went to India we started too late to be protected so find out the time frame now. I'm one that figures it's worth the expense since a lot of these diseases are still awful if you get them. If your polio is not up to date I would suggest a booster as polio is still prevelant in India.

Have a great trip to India. Jan is a good time to go.