Arnotify

When traveling abroad you’ll want to make sure you have the appropriate immunizations based on your destination, the activities you plan to participate in and your health history.

If you plan to hike Kilimanjaro, where the closest hospital is in Nairobi, a country away, you will need to make different preparations than if you only plan to stay in a large western city.

You can consult you regular physician but an alternative to consider is a local travel clinic. They are can quickly find out which immunizations are recommended (or required), but they also frequently have the necessary medicine on hand.

I was able to make a same day appointment to the San Francisco Adult Immunization & Travel Clinic. Most of the necessary paperwork is available online and you can fill it out in advance to reduce the wait. In particular, you will need to locate your vaccination and childhood disease history. After explaining my itinerary and having the various options explained to me, I got three shots in each arm: Hepatitis A, influenza, yellow fever, Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), polio booster and meningococcal vaccine. In addition, I will take an oral typhoid vaccine. I already had hepatitis B immunization, otherwise it would have been luck 7 shots.

The yellow fever immunization currently appears to not be required for entry to Tanzania (although this page also recommends the non-existent “malaria vaccination”, so beware), but this requirement has been known to change and you wouldn’t want to be turned away at the border because of that. Note that the WHO recommends yellow fever vaccination for Tanzania. You will be issued an international certificate of vaccination (usually a small yellow booklet) that you should keep with your passport.

In addition, I also got prescribed some Cipro, a broad-spectrum antibiotic particularly capable of treating severe diarrhea, and Diamox (acetazolamide), a drug that helps with high altitude acclimation by increasing the blood Ph, causing an increase in respiration rate, particularly at night. I will also take with a me prescription for Lariam (mefloquine), as a malaria prophylactic.

Depending on your situation a full set of immunizations can take three months, so make sure to get started on this well before your departure date.