Required vaccination for Tanzania/Kenya?

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

On Mon, 03 May 2004 16:45:30 GMT, Not the Karl Orff
wrote:

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?


I've just returned from Kenya and had a whole host of vaccinations, I
think I had Typhoid, Hepatitis A, and Diphtheria. I must have
forgotten a few because I had at least four...

URL: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/africa/kenya.shtml and URL:
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/africa/tanzania.shtml might help
you out

Guttorm

Not the Karl Orff wrote:
What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

I don't know about the newest requirements - but in February this year
the Tanzanian immigration officers at Kilimanjaro International Airport
wanted to see the vaccination certificate (in 2000, the Kenyan
immigration at Nairobi Airport couldn't have cared less). Whether it is
required or not, a set of vaccinations are definitely recommended! And
don't forget the antimalarials.

/ Jarna

As far as I know, Yellow Fever is definitely still officially
required. Cholera is also required, but ineffective. Whether anyone
actually checks your vaccination card or no, is up to the border post.

For example, I was asked to show the card between Zambia and Tanzania
at Tunduma, but not at the border between Malawi and Tanzania.

Also, I understand that your Yellow Fever vaccination is actually more
important when arriving back in Europe from a Yellow Fever area.

Regards,

Marc - Johannesburg


On Mon, 03 May 2004 16:45:30 GMT, Not the Karl Orff
wrote:

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

Not the Karl Orff wrote:

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

As far as my obsolete knowledge goes, no vaccinations are
required at all if you enter from a country where the diseases
like yellow fever are not endemic. Some vaccinations may be
required when you enter from the neighboring countries, most
likely yellow fever.

When you visit Kenya as a tourist for a relatively short time
and when no current outbreak is going on then you don't actually
need or want any vaccinations against tropical diseases.

The only thing you really want is protection against malaria,
i.e.

1. Malaria prophylaxis (or in special cases a cure dose in your
bag)
2. Mosquito net (already there in lodges and good hotels, but do
use it)
3. Insect repellant

Malaria can kill. One woman living near my place died a few
weeks ago in Germany after returning from the Kenyan coast. She
obviously didn't protect herself. She got sick with flu-like
symptoms. She went to her doctor, but didn't tell him she'd been
in Kenya recently. He misdiagnosed, for which I can almost not
blame him under the circumstances, sent her home with flu
medication. A few days later (maybe two) she was dead. A
postmortem determined malaria tropica, caused by Plasmodium
falciparum. It keeps happening in spite of all the good
information that's available. She did everything wrong.

Another woman in my near vicinity protected herself carefully,
but didn't use malaria prophylaxis, instead carried the already
mentioned cure dose plus mosquito nets plus insect repellant. A
few days after returning to Germany she got a fever. In full
knowledge of the danger she immediately went to the tropical
disease institute in Munich. They immediately tested very
thoroughly for malaria, but couldn't find any. The cause of the
fever remained unknown, but it subsided soon. What a difference
knowledge can make! :-)

The real danger in Kenya is not yellow fever or cholera, it is
malaria. Cholera is anyway not very dangerous for a healthy,
well fed person with access to medical treatment. I think it
can't hurt to have vaccinations against hepatitis and tetanus,
but these are useful everywhere, even back home.

Hans-Georg

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On Tue, 04 May 2004 19:42:57 +0200, Hans-Georg Michna wrote:

Not the Karl Orff wrote:

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

As far as my obsolete knowledge goes, no vaccinations are
required at all if you enter from a country where the diseases
like yellow fever are not endemic. Some vaccinations may be
required when you enter from the neighboring countries, most
likely yellow fever.

When you visit Kenya as a tourist for a relatively short time
and when no current outbreak is going on then you don't actually
need or want any vaccinations against tropical diseases.

The only thing you really want is protection against malaria,

Is there a reason to not have the yellow fever jab "just in case". Mine
made me feel bad for a day or so, but I wasn't aware of any serious
potential problems.

J;

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Encrypted e-mail address. Click to mail me:
http://cerbermail.com/?nKYh3qN4YG

In article ,
Jeremy Henderson wrote:


Is there a reason to not have the yellow fever jab "just in case". Mine
made me feel bad for a day or so, but I wasn't aware of any serious
potential problems.

Just a precaution. I was evaluatng not having it other than that I
would probably need it to enter some countries.

In article ,
Hans-Georg Michna wrote:

Not the Karl Orff wrote:

What's the required vaccinations? It seems yellow fever isn't required
anymore (at least according to some "officia" kenya/tanzania websites)?
How about countries that require you to have it if you go to various
places where it is supposed to be endemic?

As far as my obsolete knowledge goes, no vaccinations are
required at all if you enter from a country where the diseases
like yellow fever are not endemic. Some vaccinations may be
required when you enter from the neighboring countries, most
likely yellow fever.

That last statement seems to be the only reason to get one ahead of
time. I know Thailand is sticky about that if you have visited Africa
or S. America shortly before.

The only thing you really want is protection against malaria,

We'll be taking doxycycline and will get some permethrin for the clothes.

Jeremy Henderson wrote:

Is there a reason to not have the yellow fever jab "just in case". Mine
made me feel bad for a day or so, but I wasn't aware of any serious
potential problems.

Jeremy,

it is always a tradeoff. When the risk of actually catching
yellow fever is very low and the risk of dying from it even
lower, then it may be wise to avoid the risk of side effects
from the vaccination.

The problem is that the doctors have yet another factor to
consider---their own income. Therefore they tend to present the
facts such that you're induced to ask (and pay) for treatment.

It is, in fact, quite difficult to find any risk figures at all.
You could ask how many people died from yellow fever and how
many people died from traffic accidents (not to mention smoking)
in the same time period.

If, for example, you find that a couple of thousands died from
road accidents in a year, but nobody died from yellow fever,
then you might reduce your risk of dying much more by
concentrating on avoiding the dangerous road traffic than by
getting a yellow fever vaccination. The yellow fever risk would
then be insignificant in comparison.

Learning to look to the other side instead, in a left hand
traffic country like Kenya, already reduces your risk of dying
much more than all vaccinations together ever could. It would
therefore actually increase your risk if you chose the
vaccination, but forwent the other, much more effective
precautions.

The whole thing becomes even more obviously counterproductive if
the risk of getting sick from side effects is bigger than the
risk of actually contracting the disease.

Hans-Georg

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No mail, please.

Not the Karl Orff wrote:

We'll be taking doxycycline and will get some permethrin for the clothes.

That's good, but I'm pretty sure Malarone would be better than
doxycycline. The latter is much cheaper, but has at least one
unpleasant side effect (skin sunlight sensitivity), not to
mention any possible digestion problems from any broader
antibioticum. Also, Malarone is still very close to 100%
effective.

But certainly doxycycline is vastly better than no prevention
drug at all.

Hans-Georg

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