travel vaccines

JoAnneCJoAnneC
in South Africa: An Elegant Adventure

Do you need to take any vaccines for this tour? Do you need to take anti- malaria medication and if so which one did you take?

Thanks so much for any information you can provide.

Comments

  • MikeHendersonMikeHenderson

    You can find vaccine recommendations by the CDC on the web. If I remember correctly, you do not need malaria meds for South Africa but you do for Zimbabwe. But don't take my word for anything - go to the source (CDC) and get the current recommendations.

    I think Tauck publishes the CDC recommendations in your travel docs but I'm not sure.

  • BritishBritish

    Tauck passes on anything to do with vaccines, they say it’s up to you to acquire what you need. That’s why so many people ask here.

  • buonviaggiobuonviaggio

    Hi, JoAnneC! Malaria is endemic at Kruger National Park so our travel doctor did recommend taking malaria pills. We took Malarone and we had no problem with it. But we pretty much took it throughout the trip because you have to take it 1-2 days before arriving in the malaria zone and then another week following departure from the zone. Since both Kruger and Victoria Falls have malaria present, we took it two days before we got to Kruger and throughout the rest of the trip, and coming home as well. I would recommend talking to a travel doctor or your own physician because Malarone may be contraindicated depending on what other medications someone may be taking. In that case, they may prescribe doxycycline but you have to take that for a whole month and a side effect is sun sensitivity so you have to be uber diligent with sun protection. Plus each person may have different needs and tolerance levels. I will say that not everybody on our tour took malaria preventative, and the time of year we were there was lower risk (not rainy season), but we didn’t want to take a chance. I’m a major mosquito 🦟 magnet!

  • JoAnneCJoAnneC

    Thank you for your input , did you take any vaccinations ?

  • MikeHendersonMikeHenderson
    edited December 2024

    This is just me, but I've had at least the following vaccinations: smallpox, polio, TDap, hepatitis A & B, measles, mumps, COVID, pneumonia, flu, RSV, shingles, typhoid, cholera, and probably some others. When I was in the army long ago, I probably had the yellow fever vaccine - they stuck me with everything. If I think of any others, I'll add them on.

    I don't remember getting the TB vaccine.

  • BritishBritish

    I’ve had all those too including yellow fever.

  • buonviaggiobuonviaggio

    You don’t need the yellow fever vaccine for the Elegant Adventure tour although we had gotten it previously for a trip to the Amazon. Some other vaccines we had gotten from prior travel that applied to this trip are Hep A & B, typhoid fever (the pills last 5 years, the shot lasts 2 years) and TDap. We got the flu and COVID vaccines for this trip (at the time you had to show proof of COVID vaccination). Our travel physician also recommended getting a polio booster for this trip only because polio was present in neighboring countries and people do cross the border to work, etc. I believe if you got the live polio vaccine (sugar cube), you may not need the booster but if you had the inactive vaccine, which is the shot, then it might be something to consider, but again this is something to discuss with your doctor. Just thought I’d share our own experience, but everyone is different. We have also had a measles booster (apparently measles are more contagious than COVID). This is an AWESOME trip!!!! We all absolutely loved it!!!

  • JoAnneCJoAnneC

    Thank you so all your input. I am Navy retired so I've had many of the shots also. I will check with the Traveling Clinic.

  • JanroseJanrose

    We got the typhoid vaccine and will bring malaria pills. Anyone on the Jan. 17th trip?

  • AlanSAlanS

    JoAnneC
    January 2
    Thank you so all your input. I am Navy retired so I've had many of the shots also. I will check with the Traveling Clinic.

    JoAnne- I'm retired Navy too, but for the past few years we have been going to local docs for Tricare/Medicare because the powers that be at MCAS Cherry Point Navy Clinic decided we lived just a bit too far to continue getting treatment there. However, we were on base for ID cards, BX or something and decided to go to the Navy Clinic to ask what shots we would need. Since they handle bunches of Marines who deploy all over world, I figured they would know what we needed. Things were slow in the clinic that day. The head corpsman checked with the on-duty clinic doc and came back to ask us if we wanted to get our shots right then!! I was surprised but said sure, why not! They asked where we would be traveling (Botswana, SA, Zambia), and in the blink of an eye we got every shot recommended and that we might possibly need (we had to return for series shots) and had our yellow shot cards, which we thoughtfully brought with us, updated. :D We both had two sore arms but what a deal.

  • JoAnneCJoAnneC

    Thank you so much. I tried VA but you have to be a enrolled. BUPERS is in Millington with a small clinic. I will check with them .

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