Hans-Georg,

That's an intersting angle to look at the situation, and I can
certainly see where you are comming from.

Because I work in those areas, and the chances of being bitten by a
dog, rat, mongoose, bat etc. are pretty high, I have made sure that I
was vaccinated against rabies because I know that rabies is incurable
once the symptoms present, and I also know that I won't trust my life
to a potentially dodgy east African doctor with potentially dodgy
generic Indiam medicines.

The shots were (are) expensive, but I weighed it up and figured they
were well worth it.

You're quite right about a good insect repellant - worth much more
than all the tablets.

You're also right about getting run over in Nairobi :-)

Marc

On Thu, 02 Dec 2004 15:36:25 +0100, Hans-Georg Michna
wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:42:40 GMT,
(claudel) wrote:

In article ,
Hans-Georg Michna wrote:

On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:30:08 GMT,
(claudel) wrote:

http://www.cdc.gov/travel/

good web site, but of course it issues blanket recommendations.

A tourist spending only a few weeks in selected areas doesn't
need most of them. They are also not required.

The big exception is malaria.

Perhaps some of the immunizations are not required, but
personally I'd rather get an extra shot or two and not
be one of those on the sad end of the statistics...

Claude,

if only it were that simple. The problem is that the injection
has its own side effects. A few people die from inoculations.
Taking a few extra shots doesn't necessarily put you on the safe
side. Also, they cost money that you could spend on other things
that increase your likely lifespan.

Another problem is a mathematical one. It is always difficult to
treat very small risks properly, and people tend to be unable to
deal with them (so they play the lottery, for example).

To give an example, you pay money for a shot that decreases your
one-in-a-billion chance to die from yellow fever during your
two-week vacation. Then you cross the street in Nairobi and
incur a one-in-a-million (a thousand times higher) risk to get
run over by a car (particularly because the cars come from the
wrong side, but that's another matter). If you spent that same
money on a local guide, it might be vastly more effective in
decreasing your total small risk of premature death.

Even spending the same amount of money on reducing the residual
malaria risk further may be more efficient, for example by
selecting and buying the most efficient insect repellant (which
would reduce your yellow fever risk at the same time, by the
way).

In short, the yellow fever shot may not be the most
cost-efficient way to prolong your life.

I will only mention on the side that you could probably save the
live of a sick African child by spending that same money on him,
rather than on yourself.

Hans-Georg