Fuddland

Frankly, I’m amazed that one can even shop for immunisations, let alone that is it is actually worth doing.

I’m off on holiday to somewhere quite exciting but also a bit dodgy infectious-disease-wise in November; I’ve not mentioned this yet because I haven’t had time to figure out precisely what ratios my levels of excitement and nervousness are in, but I will do soon enough. Suffice to say, it requires me to get a lot of jabs, and since I’m moving at the end of the month, I thought I’d sort them out before I have to transfer my medical records down South, so I popped into the local Health Centre.

It turns out I need protection from:

1. typhoid;
2. diphtheria;
3. tetanus;
4. yellow fever;
5. hepatitis B;
6. rabies.

The first three are free of charge and the nurse did them there and then. For the latter three, the total cost would come to £204.50; that’s £50 for yellow fever, three times £11.50 for hep B, and three lots of £40 for rabies [which is not really an inoculation — it gives you 48 hours to get help instead of the usual 24. I’m almost in two minds about whether this is worth doing].

Since the hep B and rabies jabs are given over a period of a month, the nurse suggested I check out clinics in London as it might not be worth me starting the courses in Leicester and having to come back up for doses two and three. My old surgery proved useless as they firstly wouldn’t tell me the prices unless I was registered with them, and secondly they don’t provide the yellow fever vaccination anyway. So I looked up the Travel Clinic at The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and it appears I can get the same inoculations, but it would cost a total of £248.50.

Not that it was all that easy extracting the total cost from the HTD; the price list is not only incomplete but also misleading as it does not state that the prices are per dose [nor how many doses are required]. After several emails between myself and someone who works there, we arrived at the total above. I think I rather narked him off during the course of our exchange by wondering aloud why it costs rather more at their clinic than my local one, as he provided me with both the reason and a random promotional semi-rant.

It turns out that, because hepatitis B [and A] vaccinations are not travel-specific, GPs etc can administer these for the usual prescription costs, whereas the HTD has to pay the full price, which it is “obliged to pass on to the customer”. What’s more:

[The HTD is] as you will be aware from the website a world centre of excellence which provides a consultant led service for a wide range of travellers, including many who regularly appear on television. If you were going to have surgery would you go to a surgeon who performed one operation a year or would you go to one who was regarded as a leading light in his or her field. [sic]

I don’t know about you, but I always choose my medical team based on whether or not they’ve treated people who are on the telly.

The following is an entry which follows on from the above:

1. Destinations [Fuddland]. Excerpt: Right, I'm off to Argentina and Bolivia....

#1

felicity | 2005 / 08 / 18 – 21:57

my ex father-in-law has recently began his innoculations for a trip to austria. he’s going walking and at some point will be in a wooded area, and apparently therein lies a bug that buggers up your system if it’s bite isn’t treated immediatelty. normally it’d be scared off by your common or garden bug repellent, but as my dear ole dad in law is on a daily dose of rat poison to thin his blood he figured it’d be best to get the jabs. 2 in total for 148 quid…..

#2

bsag | 2005 / 08 / 19 – 08:28

I recently had to get a very similar set of vaccinations for an upcoming trip to Brazil. I didn’t bother with Hep B in the end (though I might take some sterile syringes and needles with me just in case), nor did I have the rabies (mostly because I was under the erroneous impression that it was still the ghastly injection via the navel, and that freaked me out).

I think that you have to weigh the risks up: yellow fever has no treatment, and is fatal in 20-50% of cases, so it’s certainly worth having that (and protection lasts for 10 years). Unless you’re going to be more that 24 hours from decent hospital facilities, the rabies vaccination might not be necessary - just avoid any angry looking dogs or bats.

#3

David | 2005 / 08 / 19 – 09:57

Re #2: Yes, I’ll definitely have the yellow fever one — some countries won’t even let you in without a certificate proving you’ve been inoculated against it. I think I’ll be having that this Tuesday, with possible side effects including dizziness and slight fever, which will make packing up the rest of my stuff on Wednesday fun!

As for the other two, yes, rabies is still a bit of a question mark, but I probably will be camping in some pretty rural areas so it could well be handy having that extra 24 hours. As for hepatitis B: I’m not planning on sharing needles, blood or other bodily fluids with anyone else, but then you don’t always have control over the actions of other people. Better safe than sorry is going to be the best course of action methinks.

#4

highrise | 2005 / 08 / 19 – 10:00

…so you’re taking your hols in the West Midlands, then…?

#5

Lyle | 2005 / 08 / 19 – 12:14

And the irony of contracting Hep B because of being jabbed for the potentially rabies-ridden bite you got would be high indeed…

[Edited by commenter — 12:14]

#6

David | 2005 / 08 / 19 – 12:19

Re #4: Close … it’s definitely West of the Midlands!

Re #5: That’s a fair point — if I died an ironic death, I’d never live it down. ;)

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