Vaccinations

What this lesson will cover

Why travel vaccines are required?
Which vaccines are most important and available on the NHS?
Insect bourne diseases.
Common issues that need vaccinating against and the type of information required on them.
Useful recourses on how to decide which vaccines to advise.

Why Travel vaccinations are required?

Different highly infectious illnesses across the world mean personalised vaccinations are required before international travel.

Different countries present wildly different medical challenges. Travel vaccinations are therefore required to protect travellers from illnesses not common in their host country but prevalent in their travel destination.

How vaccinations work?

Vaccinations work by presenting your body with a weakened form of infection. This allows your immune system to recognise the shape the infection takes within your body and build up defences to prepare from when the dangerous version emerges. A little like taking a mock examination!
A range of vaccinations are therefore required for each potential infection that could occur whilst travelling.
Some vaccinations come in ‘packages’ where multiple weakened infections are presented to your body at once to both speed up your immune system’s protection rate and make the vaccination process cheaper.

Vaccines available on the NHS:

Tetanus/Polio/Diphtheria (Td/IPV) – required every 10 years for travel.
Hepatitis A – 1st dose likely protects 5 years – 2nd protects for 25 years.
Typhoid – protection lasts 3 years
Cholera

*It may seem complicated to keep track of all the vaccinations and timing efficacy, but the NHS has provided a summarising poster for the most commonly required vaccines.*

Insect Bourne Diseases

Insect borne diseases are some of the most common form infection. Watching out for these, whether you have been vaccinated or not can play a huge part in travel safety. Some of the most common insect borne diseases include:

Dengue
Chikungunya
Malaria
Zika
Leishmaniasis
Japanese Encephalitis

Simple safety measures can reduce the risk of insect-related infections.

These include:

Using frequent and high quality insect repellents
Wearing protective clothing against insect bites
Insect preventative nets
Receive all relevant vaccinations before travelling

Commonly required vaccinations

Vaccines must be specialised for the country of travel. However, some vaccinations are so common that they are supplied ubiquitously, these include:

Tetanus (TDP), Hepatitis A, Typhoid
MMR (Measles, mumps and rubella)
Vaccines highly advised: Yellow Fever, Hepatitis B, Rabies, Meningitis
ACWY, Japanese Encephalitis and Cholera.

The type of portfolio required for common diseases requiring vaccination

An example: Typhoid

What is it?

Typhoid fever is a particularly common disease and is prevalent worldwide, with frequent incidences in: Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa and Central and South America.
Typhoid is a life-threatening infection caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi.

How is it presented?

It is spread through contaminated food and water.
Once Salmonella Typhi bacteria are ingested, they multiply and spread into the bloodstream.
Common symptoms include: fever, stomach pain, headache, excretion abnormalities, cough, and loss of appetite

How can we protect/treat against it?

There is no cure post-infection, but can be treated with antibiotics including: Fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, macrolides, Carbapenems.
It can be vaccinated against with the most common vaccine being Oral Typhoid (Vivotif)