Jabs

All jabs that you're going to get are for your health (unless you have a peculiar fetish) but one of them, Yellow Fever, also acts as a travel document. For those countries who care, if you don't have an up to date Yellow Fever certificate you don't get in the country.

Several jabs, in the UK at least, have programmes where suitably timed booster jabs can give much increased duration protection. Sadly, I always seem to forget to get the booster when I return and have to cough up again for the jabs.

What jabs to get are

1. dependent on where you're going
2. up to your assessment of the risk

The risk one isn't easy. I took the course for rabies (and had a booster) but it turns out that the jabs don't immunise you against rabies at all but merely(?) gives you an extra day to get to hospital.

Riding motorbikes (rather than sitting on buses) famously attracts yappy bitey dogs. Maybe a decent pair of boots offers better protection.

For my India 2010 trip I am going to places where every "standard" jab is recommended for long term stay (greater than three months) or just recommended anyway. In addition, with the flooding in Pakistan, the question wasn't even asked whether I wanted my Cholera meds it was merely a case of which one.

Malaria Prophylaxis

Most places I go to seem to suffer from malaria. My primary beef about this is that it causes problems with my blood donating. In two ways, actually:

1. you can't give blood for six months (which knocks my donation count for six -- I'll never catch my Mum up)
2. they always insist on asking about every bloody country that I've been to in the last ten years. I really must print out a list.

Anyway, I tried Doxycycline when I went round the world and, despite my predilection for getting sunburnt in the UK, its most famous side-effect (increased photo-sensitivity) hasn't affected me.

I'm willing to believe that the factor 50+ suntan lotion and always wearing a wide brimmed hat might have something to bear, mind. My feet haven't burned, though.

The extra benefit of Doxy is that it is a general purpose anti-biotic which should help clear things up if the local food hygiene disagrees with me.