Inoculations

For this voyage, there are certain health requirements for each country, including medicines and inoculations (shots). Today was my appointment at the UVA Travel Clinic, a department in the UVA Hospital to assist foreign travelers. It was nice to deal with an organization that was so prepared. When I made the appointment several weeks ago, they took my travel information and had a packet printed for all the countries I would visit.

The Centers for Disease Control sets the kind of vaccinations or medicines that are needed throughout the world and has maps for each country. Since I had taken my tetanus booster a few weeks ago, I had to take 3 more shots today. One of the biggies was the Yellow Fever shot that I would need for Ghana. We also counted out the number of malaria pills I would need for each country. Normally, South Africa would not require malaria pills, but since we would be in Kruger Game Park, that region does require the medicine. I ended up with a prescription for 52 pills. The Typhoid vaccine is a live oral vaccine.

This was a pretty painless outing and quite informative. It's nice to have medicine for intestinal disorder should that occur. A trip to the pharmacy finished my day. It's nice to have one more detail checked off my list.