Inoculations

“The best form of prevention against rabies is make sure you don’t get bitten by a dog”, said Doctor McIntyre, without the faintest hint of a smile and without lifting her gaze from the array of medical text books on her desk. Fantastic. I love the NHS: Pragmatic, common sense advice!

We had travelled the short distance to our General Practitioner’s surgery in the neighbouring village of Ashwell to find out what inoculations we would need to safeguard us during our forthcoming adventure. The list was a long one, but fortunately for both Karen and me, previous holiday destinations had meant that we were already quite well protected against the major risks.

Doctor McIntyre reviewed our Vaccines Record Card, “Hepatitis A – you’re OK there; Typhoid – OK; Tuberculosis – that’s fine; Diphtheria, - you have that; Cholera – up to date; Tetanus – David, you’re OK but Karen will need a booster”

Karen rolled up the sleeve on her right arm whilst the Doctor carefully analysed the contents of her medicine cabinet for the appropriate vaccine. Karen flinched as the doctor purposefully administered the inoculation. “That hurt more than the Belarusian Visa!”, Karen joked as the doctor applied a sticking plaster to her upper arm.

By this stage Doctor McIntyre seemed quite exited as she eagerly thumbed through the pages of her reference books, “It says here”, she continued, “That you may also want to consider additional vaccination against Hepatitis B, Japanese Encephalitis and Tick-borne Encephalitis. But that will be very expensive for you and if I were you I’d take the risk”. Excellent, I thought – that’ll help with the budget. (By the way does anybody know what Tick-borne Encephalitis actually does to you? Oh well, never mind!)

“Malaria prevention – that’s something you do need. Let’s see – you’ll be at risk from China onwards. Start the course 7 days before you get into an infected area, one-a-day whilst you’re there and then 28 days after you return. So all in all, I’ll prescribe you each with 105 days supply. That should cover you nicely”

All things considered – not a bad result then. Mind you, as Karen and I made the short journey home, I couldn’t help thinking that I would be spending a third of next year popping malaria tablets. Nice.