Travelling outside the country can be exhilarating and enlightening. Before you go, boost the health quotient of your trip by getting the right vaccines and medications. Dr. Jay Keystone, a leading expert in travel medicine and former head of the tropical disease unit at Toronto General Hospital, gives this advice.
1. Get immunized against hepatitis A and B if you're travelling somewhere other than Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and most of western Europe.
Hepatitis A is transmitted through food and water and hepatitis B through blood and unprotected sex. Even if sex isn't part of your agenda, you need protection against hepatitis B. Why? Because you could contract it from a haircut, a manicure or an injection. Between 25 and 75 per cent of all injections given in developing countries are given with unsterilized equipment, which puts you at risk for hepatitis B.
You can get lifelong protection against both hepatitis A and B with three doses of a single vaccine given over three weeks.
2. Keep routine shots updated.
Get vaccinated every 10 years against tetanus and diphtheria and be sure to get an annual flu shot.
3. Find out about the fevers -- yellow and typhoid.
If your travel plans include sub-Sahara Africa or South America (the Amazon in particular), you may need immunization against yellow fever as well. Get your shot 10 days before you go on your trip. You only need a second dose if, 10 years later, you plan to go to a place where there is yellow fever; otherwise you'll just need a single dose.
If you're planning a lengthy trip to any part of the developing world, especially to South Asia, or are going off the main tourist routes, you may need protection against typhoid fever. More than 75 per cent of typhoid cases in North Americans occur in travellers who stay with friends or family in their mother country.
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