Our travel clinic in Windsor is used to seeing people with all kinds of medical needs before they travel. Whether it is anti-malarial pills for the tropics, Diamox tablets for high-altitude treks up Kilimanjaro or to Everest Base Camp, or vaccinations for tropical diseases, we do it all.
The last of these, however, may be an area of concern. As the BBC reports, the fervent activities of anti-vax activists that reached a crescendo during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have taken some toll. It’s not that everyone has suddenly taken up with wild conspiracy theories about microchips and Bill Gates, but vaccination rates are down.
Speaking to the broadcaster about the irony of the successful roll-out of the Covid vaccines, University of Swansea public health researcher Dr Simon Williams remarked: “One of the most successful innovations in public health history, the rapid development of Covid vaccines, has actually had the effect of reducing public confidence in vaccination”.
Declining Trust In Vaccines
The report went on to note that various polls have shown a decline in the number of people who fully trust vaccines, especially among young people.
What may be of considerable concern at present is the low take-up of Covid and flu jabs in the UK before the current winter, with very high numbers being hospitalised. These jabs are on offer only to older people, who are more used to vaccinations and use social media less, but, the BBC report suggests, ‘vaccine fatigue’ may have taken its toll after so many jabs.
At the same time, however, there are huge concerns about parents with children who are not getting vaccinated against conditions like measles (an echo of the discredited claim by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998 that the MMR caused autism).
Younger people, however, will make up a large proportion of those who may travel to far-flung places, whether on gap years or shorter trips where they plan to see the world, although far from the whole demographic.
Don’t Neglect Your Travel Jabs
However, it doesn’t matter what age group you are in when it comes to overseas travel. If you need a vaccination – or more than one – for where you are going, you should get it.
A particularly common vaccine is against yellow fever. You need to have had this (and the certificate that comes with it) to enter some tropical countries, or if you enter from another country where the disease is present, so not getting it could lead to you having a very short holiday.
Yellow fever is a serious infection which, like many other tropical diseases, is spread by mosquitoes. For most, an infection is like a nasty dose of flu, but for some, it can be far more severe and lead to a life-threatening illness. Symptoms include severe jaundice, hence the name of the disease.
In many tropical countries, such as Kenya, the kind of diseases vaccination is recommended for include Hepatitis A, which can be caught from contaminated food and water, or an infected person; Typhoid, which is also a food and water-based risk, and Tetanus, the latter being something you would normally be up to date within the UK.
In Asia, Japanese encephalitis is another insect-borne virus to be protected against, especially if you are travelling to rural areas where mosquitoes are abundant.
In most countries, travellers are also advised to be up to date with vaccinations such as the diphtheria-tetanus-polio vaccine and the MMR.
The key thing to note is that the vaccinations you may get specifically for travel, such as yellow fever, are tried, tested and known to be safe. There really is no reason not to get them.
Make Sure You Are Safe
Not only are some of these diseases potentially life-threatening, but you may find you contract them in a location where you cannot easily access adequate medical services, even if you do have full travel insurance (which is something you should always have, especially for any health emergencies that could arise).
Strangely enough, you won’t hear much from anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists about Yellow Fever or Hepatitis A jabs, or see activists with placards outside travel clinics spinning wild tales.
Ultimately, vaccination is all about giving your immune system a small, weakened (or harmless) dose of a nasty virus, which it will then respond to and therefore build immune memory into your system. This way, it will be able to handle the real thing in the way it would struggle to do if it was exposed to the full virus without this preparation.
That applies with any vaccination, so don’t let the sceptics put you off – especially if you are visiting a part of the world with significant health risks.