question and answer Travelling: when are vaccines needed?
December 2006 "Should a vaccine against traveller's diarrhea be
prescribed to all individuals going to developing countries?"
asks SAKINA RAJ, MD, of Calgary, AB. Assessment before leaving
for developing countries requires a detailed evaluation
including current health, exposure risks, vaccination review and
provision, and education regarding prevention and self-treatment
of travel-related diseases. It's impossible to make universal
recommendations. For example, a business traveller staying in an
urban first-class hotel for a short while will have a
dramatically different risk from that of an aid worker who may
live in remote areas with lower levels of hygiene for a
prolonged period of time. Before offering travel-specific
vaccines, it's important to ensure that the patient's routine
immunizations are up-to-date -- i.e. tetanus, diphtheria, polio,
pertussis, measles-mumps-rubella. I believe the vaccine you may
be referring to is the oral, inactivated c