Preparing to Travel: Vaccinations
One of the main things we found when preparing for our trip is that advice on the vaccination process is pretty vague, which isn’t ideal considering they’re one of the most important parts of preparing for your big trip. Thankfully, we’re here to share our experience and hopefully demystify the process.
Time
It’s important to make sure you have enough time for the full course of vaccinations before you travel. Some vaccines require a number of different courses and need to be given over several weeks. For example, our Hepatitis B vaccination involved three injections, given a week and two weeks apart, respectively.
Another important point to note is that your surgery or travel clinic may not be as organised as you’d like. The NHS might be a wonderful thing, but they have their work cut out and not all surgeries are well run or organised, so prepare early to save headaches (there are medications for this too, but prevention is better than a cure).
NHS travel appointment
Some vaccinations can be obtained for free on the NHS 💊🎉. Because of this, a good place to start is by booking a travel appointment with your doctor. You’ll need to fill in a travel form with details of your trip and then you’ll be booked into for an appointment. In the appointment they’ll talk you through the recommended vaccinations and provide any which are free of charge.
As we’re travelling to South East Asia, we were able to get Hepatitis A, Typhoid and Diphtheria, Tetanus and Polio (DTP) vaccinations from the NHS. Hepatitis B is also free of charge but is currently in short supply, so we had to get this elsewhere.
Private travel appointment
For any other vaccinations, you’ll need to book in with a private travel clinic. These range from dedicated travel centres to Health & Beauty stores like Boots and Superdrug. We used Boots as our nearest one is pretty quiet and has plenty of appointments available.
The process for these will of course vary but you may have to fill in something beforehand and then provide more information during the consultation. At Boots, they take some basic medical history before running through the destinations and durations of your trip. This will then generate a list of recommended and encouraged vaccinations which can then be opted-in or out of, as well as their costs.
Malaria
Malaria is a tropical disease commonly spread by Mosquitos. Your travel appointment will cover Malaria risk in the areas you’re travelling to (if any), but you can also check yourself on the NHS Fit For Travel website.
There are a number of Antimalarials which can be taken to prevent infection, such as Doxycycline, Malarone and Mefloquine. These all have various pros, cons and side-effects which should be discussed with your doctor or whoever is carrying out your travel appointment.
We chose Doxycycline as it is relatively low in side-effects and its low cost means it is widely used by long-term travellers. You can pick this up in a number of places, we got them online from Post My Meds at around £20 for 51 tablets (enough for 2 weeks plus the recommended 2 days before and 4 weeks after entering an infected area).
If you’re ordering online, make sure your pharmacy is MHRA registered and everything is legal. You can check here.
Costs
It’s easy to overlook the cost of vaccinations when budgeting your trip, but these will sometimes be costly. As with most things, planning ahead will help to manage this cost. The prices do vary from clinic to clinic, but you’ll likely be paying similar prices in most places. Some places advertise their prices online and some you may have to wait until your appointment. As an example, we paid the following from Boots:
- Hepatitis B: £40 per dose, £120 for the full 3 doses
- Cholera: £50 for both doses
Dead Arms and other side-effects
For those who’ve been lucky enough not to have many injections, it’s worth noting you’ll probably have a dead arm for a few days. We found that some hurt more than others but it was just a mild inconvenience.
I also had a pretty hefty cold a week or so after I’d had a few vaccinations, I’m not sure whether this was related or not, but with your immune system working overtime, it’s a good idea to eat your greens and look after yourself anyway.
Useful links
- NHS Fit For Travel: Information on disease risks as well as regular updates on other risks and advisory notices.
- Post My Meds: Online pharmacy.
- Boots travel vaccination quick check: A quick guide to which vaccinations you may need. You can also book a travel appointment from here.
