April 12, 2008

Travel diseases you don't want

I found this article today on Vagabondish about nasty travel diseases and I just had to share it. Why? Because when I left India and moved to Dubai, the first time I went back to Mumbai, I got Hepatitis A, and the next time I went I got Typhoid. Both these diseases kept me in bed for 2-months each. I have vivid memories of them and they were the worst time of my life, both of which could be easily avoided if I had taken shots.

India is my home country, a place I'd lived in for 10-years, a mere year away and my immune system had changed drastically. I hadn't taken vaccinations (why would I? I was going home!), but I was super careful with the water I drank (bottled or boiled only) and the food I ate. To add to that, both my parents are doctors, even they didn't see the need to take extra precautions; me getting these diseases was a lesson for them too.

Vagabondish has put together a list of 10 of the nastiest diseases your body could succumb to, no matter how careful you are, if you don't take the vaccinations for those ones you can.

I think what I want to say is that don't question whether you need them or not. You do, always. I know people who skip them because they are expensive and they are confident of their immune system. From someone who has had 2 of these nastiest diseases: no matter where you are going or what they cost, TAKE THE INJECTIONS.

Posted by Abha Malpani |
Related: Notes from the collective travel mind

Comments (1)

Sarah Clement:

I recently returned from living in West Africa, where I caught both Cholera, and Typhoid. And while i can say that neither one was pleasant in the least, I'm glad I got them. Why? Because it helped give me a better idea of what the people I'm working with/for deal with on a daily basis. It's one thing to visit a rural hospital and say "Oh, I'm sorry you have cholera". It's another to really be able to know what they're going through, from experience.

I didn't take prophylactics, and to my knowledge, I haven't caught malaria, so I may just have escaped *that* one, at least.

Call me crazy, call me stupid, but I don't fear things like that.

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