Vaccinations en route

[MiracleMaud]

I have just been for my “sensible” top-up jabs prior to a trip over the coming months. Has anyone had vaccinations on the Leeward or Windward Islands, and if so, where? If you can recall, how much did it cost, and how simple was it to achieve?

I am loathed to take on board the Yellow Fever jab if we don't end up going that far south, hence my preference to defer, but I would hate it to be a show stopper.

Thanks in anticipation.

 

[tillergirl]

Yellow Fever vaccine needs to be taken 10 days before entering an endemic area or you won't be protected. I would have thought also that failing to establish its effectiveness prior to arrival in an endemic area would invalid the certificate which enables you to enter other countries that require evidence of vaccination should you be travelling from an endemic area. I had the jab on Friday in preparation for a business trip to Africa during which I was told that there is no record of any traveller who contracted yellow fever surviving! So I guess it's your call!

The jab cost me £73 in the UK and I have had two days of quite nasty reaction which laid me low. Fine now though.

Actually since writing the above I checked the list of countries where yellow fever is endemic and I can't see the Leeward Islands listed. They do however require you to have had vaccination and a certificate if COMING from a country where it is endemic. So it depends where you are coming from.

You can get a link through to a pdf of 'yellow fever countries' here: http://www.nathnac.org/ds/c_pages/country_page_AG.htm

 

[MiracleMaud]

Thanks tillergirl, I appreciate that, and I'm familiar with nathnac.

I don't believe there is anywhere is the Leewards considered a Yellow Fever risk, but as you allude, it could be an issue on a return leg - especially on a short haul hop for a return flight to the UK. For our potential itinerary, it's Trinidad that's the issue. My query on the Leewards was to maximise on responses and to perhaps consider Guadeloupe as a potential vaccination venue.

To add to the mix, allegedly Yellow Fever vaccine is in short supply, with the Doc only having 2 doses in stock.

 

[Ariadne]

You can nearly everything done in Trinidad for very little cost or free. Best if you already have your 'Yellow book' but not compulsory. You can also get them done on most of the islands, but Trinidad is going to be cheapest by a country mile.

There is Yellow Fever in Trinidad according to UK MASTA briefing, but none of the other island have wanted to see our vaccination certificates to date.

 

[Gerry]

Another vote for Trinidad, we got them for free prior to heading to Venezuela and beyond some six years ago.I am sure that Jesse Lames at Chagaramas will be able to answer any questions you have.

 

[tillergirl]

Thanks tillergirl, I appreciate that, and I'm familiar with nathnac.

I don't believe there is anywhere is the Leewards considered a Yellow Fever risk, but as you allude, it could be an issue on a return leg - especially on a short haul hop for a return flight to the UK. For our potential itinerary, it's Trinidad that's the issue. My query on the Leewards was to maximise on responses and to perhaps consider Guadeloupe as a potential vaccination venue.

To add to the mix, allegedly Yellow Fever vaccine is in short supply, with the Doc only having 2 doses in stock.

Trinidad is a yellow fever country so you will want to get the vaccine 10 days before you get there so you are protected. Getting it done once you are there exposes you until you have the jab and the protection develops. Don't see the point of getting the jab just for the yellow book when its something that can kill you. Doesn't seem logical to me. I can appreciate that there might be difficulties in availability. It's a live vaccine so presumably has a short shelf life. It wasn't available locally here for me.

 

[nigelmercier]

Take your own syringes and needles.

 

[MiracleMaud]

Thanks everyone. Any more? I'll listen to all comment/opinion here.

 

[macd]

I was told that there is no record of any traveller who contracted yellow fever surviving!

Not wishing to minimise a very nasty disease, but that sounds like a case of poor record-keeping as much as anything else. The survival rate varies considerably with different strains, but is generally high. Around 15% of patients enter a toxic phase in which the mortality rate can be as much as 50%, although generally much less.

 

[Neil_Y]

We had yellow fever jabs in Grenada before heading for Venezuela, there was a medical centre in St georges, quite straight forwards and not expensive. The hardest part was the Visa as it involved a long walk up a steep hill and waiting.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Just as an aside, it used to be a requirement for passengers travelling to the Falkland Islands via Ascension Island to have a valid Yellow Fever vaccination. Not because either location has Yellow Fever - they don't - but because the alternate landing sites in Africa (and maybe Brazil?) that would be used if the aircraft couldn't land at Ascension Island did. I think that the flight from UK to Ascension Island is also one of the few passenger routes where the aircraft gets beyond a point where there are no alternates, and the aircraft has to land on Ascension or ditch in the sea. So, go/no go decisions about landing on Ascension have to be taken early in the flight, while off West Africa.

I think they've dropped the requirement for some reason, but I still have a valid Yellow Fever certificate, though I think it expires soon.

Yellow fever was the reason that the West Indies were a mized blessing for naval officers in the Napoleonic years! If you survived, you'd almost certainly get rapid promotion and plenty of prize money - but there was a high risk of not surviving!