Or This Won’t Hurt a Bit
Some of the documentation I carry with us are our immunization cards that we received from the Center for Disease Control back in the US. Listed on it are the vaccines we have both gotten and the dates of those shots.
Mike and I do not have ‘regular’ health care coverage and neither of us qualifies for Medicaid. Medicaid does not pay for immunization shots so we have paid for them all out of pocket. When we visit family in CA we travel to the CDC office (the Pasadena Public Health Department) and we get any new doses of vaccines that we need.
I am way more susceptible to catching things or in being bitten by bugs than Mike so I tend to get more of the shots. The reason I carry our immunization cards is that some countries can actually stop us from entering their country without this proof in hand. I have carried our cards through every border crossing we have gone through and luckily no one has asked to see them, but I have them just in case.
I also look on the list of countries that we want to live in and see what shots might be recommended. Most shots listed for every country are merely ‘recommendations’ but getting the shot and perhaps heading off some future health issue or crippling disease is worth the expense, at least to us.
For example, one of the countries that we would like to live in is Thailand. The most highly recommended shot for visiting there is the Japanese Encephalitis shot. Since we try to live in a country at least 3 months, with a goal of staying 6 months, many health ‘warnings’ exist for those traveling to a certain place for 30 days or less. If you plan to spend more than 30 days in any one location getting the shots is strongly ‘advised’, and could be the difference in you being allowed to enter the country or not. Japanese Encephalitis is spread via a mosquito bite and the repercussions can be deadly so it really isn’t worth it to me to skip the shot. The issue for us, since we don’t have health insurance, is that this one shot currently costs $453.00 in the US, which is way too steep a cost for me. Since we won’t be traveling there any time soon I am on the hunt for a country where I can get the shot and where the cost might be way cheaper. To assist me there is the International Society of Travel Medicine. This website lists locations of medical facilities around the world where getting verified doses of vaccines is suggested (a handy resource for anyone who travels outside of the US).
Some countries do not care if you are coming to them via the US where many of the diseases people need shots for are not endemic. However since Mike and I are traveling from location to location and the US is not our base they check our passports more closely to ensure that we haven’t come from a country or a location that is at risk. For example, the government of Thailand requires proof of yellow fever vaccination only if you are arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever. This does not include the US. If you are traveling from a country other than the US however, they have a list of the countries where having the yellow fever vaccine would be a requirement. The CDC website is therefore bookmarked on my internet since it is a very handy resource.
The next country on our list to live in is Spain and travel there requires only the basic vaccines. These include measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine, and your yearly flu shot. What changes between Spain – Hungry – Romania is that having the Hepatitis A shot is strongly recommended in both Hungry and Romania. I’ve had both Hep A (two shots) and Hep B, so I should be good to go. Many of the immunizations we have received should protect us anywhere from 10 to 20 years which is plenty of time for us to finish all of our travels.
For many people who are simply vacationing outside of the US getting some of these shots might be overkill. For travel to areas that are more prone to infections it would be strongly advisable to make sure your vaccines are up to date.
There are a lot of issues with long term travel, some that people overlook or completely forget about. This issue for us is foremost on our minds as we travel from country to country. We are all in favor of seeing the world; we just want to make sure the only thing we take back to the US with us, is our memories.
Florence Lince
The Expat C.A.F.E. 