Yellow Fever exemption

JKress

Both my wife and I are booked for the Classic Safari to Tanzania and Kenya in 2018. When meeting with a travel advisor, the topic of the serious side effects of the YF vaccine for those over 60 was addressed. In lieu of getting the shot, he provided us with a letter stating that we "must be exempted from the requirement for yellow fever immunization." Your thoughts, please?

joycesw

Since your Travel advisor knows your medical history, I would hope you would follow his/ her advice. That would supersede any advice from forum respondents. On the other hand, our travel clinic advised us to get the shot, and we did with no ill effects. We were over the 60 age as well. Hopefully, a past traveler with an exemption will weigh in.

Sealord

We got the shots. We are both well over 60. We were asked for proof of vaccination when we arrived in Tanzania. I don’t know how the waiver letter works, but I would not want to bet my Africa safari on it. The entrance authorities in Africa have as much specific ‘guidance’ as the TSA ... I would suggest having your papers in order. If you are not going to get the shots, I would recommend contacting the Kenya and Tanzania embassies to see what they have to say about waiver letters.

British

Sealord wrote:

We got the shots. We are both well over 60. We were asked for proof of vaccination when we arrived in Tanzania. I don’t know how the waiver letter works, but I would not want to bet my Africa safari on it. The entrance authorities in Africa have as much specific ‘guidance’ as the TSA ... I would suggest having your papers in order. If you are not going to get the shots, I would recommend contacting the Kenya and Tanzania embassies to see what they have to say about waiver letters.

Sealord, that's a good idea. May as well get it from the horse's mouth.
As I have mentioned before, if you do thorough and up to date research, you will find that the increase in risk for over sixties in miniscule.
We have just gotten the updated Shingles, first shot of two vaccine. We did get the old one. It sure did hurt quite badly for a few days, but for us we thought it was worth it. We hope we take all precautionary measures to protect ourselves from our travels to third world countries.

https://www.livescience.com/50191-yellow-fever-vaccine-rare-reaction.html This is the sort of article I read.

Bosco

This is from the CDC website. If yellow fever vaccine is not required why get it?

Health recommendation: CDC does not recommend yellow fever vaccine for most travelers to Tanzania. However, you might consider this vaccine if you are staying a long time or will be heavily exposed to mosquitoes.

Country entry requirement: The government of Tanzania requires proof of yellow fever vaccination upon arrival if you are traveling from a country with risk of yellow fever (this does not include the US - see complete list: Countries with risk of yellow fever virus (YFV) transmission.)

AlanS

Bosco wrote:

This is from the CDC website. If yellow fever vaccine is not required why get it?

Health recommendation: CDC does not recommend yellow fever vaccine for most travelers to Tanzania. However, you might consider this vaccine if you are staying a long time or will be heavily exposed to mosquitoes.

Country entry requirement: The government of Tanzania requires proof of yellow fever vaccination upon arrival if you are traveling from a country with risk of yellow fever (this does not include the US - see complete list: Countries with risk of yellow fever virus (YFV) transmission.)

Those recommendations makes a couple of assumptions-

The one skeeter that bites you didn't just arrive from a YF country on an airplane, crate of fruit, etc.
The person on duty at the border (1) will not check your shot card, (2) knows the current policy, (3) will accept the letter from your doctor and will let you cross the border
You won't return to Africa and will never visit another part of the world where YF is a possibility.

Again, everyone should see their travel doctor. We were well over 60 when we visited the local military clinic for our shots. They did not hesitate to recommend we get YF shots.

You pays your price and takes your chance!