So in preparation for our trip, I had checked to see if there were any recomended or requried vaccines. For American traveling to Brazil, none are generally required. If you come through other countries that are prone to outbreaks, the Brazilian government requires you to have a vaccine. However, about 4 weeks ago, I started seeing news reports of a yellow fever outbreak in Brazil. I studied the news, visited online chat boards and checked with the embassy.
You can see the outbreak area is only in Iguazu Falls, and I read mixed recomendations to get the vacccine if you are traveling there. For citizens of Australia and the UK, their government requries the vaccine for any travel to Brazil. H and I went back and forth about getting the vaccine and decided to be vaccineated to be on the safe side.
We decided that since we are likely to travel to Africa next year, where the vaccine would be required, to just go ahead with the shot and be protected. I haven’t seen much more news out of Brazil about the outbreak easing up or if it’s increasing. I know there was a rush on the vaccine down there in their cities & it even made getting the vaccine here in the US difficult.
H and I went down to the Methodist Hospital Wellness Center for Travelers in the Medical center last Thursday. It was the best appointment we’ve ever had. We showed up at 2:00 pm for our 2:15 appointment, and were walking out of there at 2:12! The nurse who gave us the vaccine was friendly and very helpful, and the shots for both of us were $224.
So far, none of the nasty side-effects we were warned about. Neither of us felt terrible, but we’ve had a few headaches lately. I attribute mine to studying too much, but it might be the vaccine.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: No turning yellow for us!
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on December 1, 2009, that 12 million people will receive the Yellow Fever vaccination in West African countries. This is a breakthrough, the medical world could not have done, if it was not for the work organizations, yourself conducted. Here, at Disease.com (a non profit, website) would like to aid in spreading awareness for Yellow Fever. In the past, Disease.com (a website dedicated to the prevention and treatment of diseases) has worked with several elite non profit organizations with great success. If you could, please list us as a resource or host our social book mark button, it would be much appreciated. Lets abolish Yellow Fever, for good.If you want more information on that please email me back with the subject line as your URL.