Vaccinations

It was a fraught appointment (it wasn?t a good idea being the call handler for?Devon Freewheelers?in a location where mobiles need to be turned off) at my local doctors surgery:?Haldon House, Exmouth. During my consultation with the practice?nurse, and while she merrily distracted me while injecting vaccines for hep-A, typhoid, tetanus, diphtheria & polio , she suggested i make an appoint with the Exeter Travel Clinic for the more exotic vaccinations. I met up with James, one of the clinical directors at the?Exeter Travel Clinic?to for ?the remaining jabs, anti-malaria medication and guidance on on-the-road first-aid. After listening to my vague plan, James merrily stabbed my arm with needles for yellow fever, hep-B, rabies meningitis, while providing practical advice and suggestions?all of which have started to eat into my budget.

Japanese encephalitis

As the?Japanese encephalitis?vaccination?has a limited time protection, i need to wait until I?m in Northern India before i get the first part of the vaccination, then the second part in the south of the country.

Malaria

There is no way around it ? I?m going to be heading into some of the most high risk places for?malaria. To be able to determine the correct anti-malarial medication, i needed a route plan with timings which I?d only done in a wishy-washy manner ? until now. With this in mind, I came up with the following adulterated map.

• The?red line?is the rough route i plan to take ? accepting that the actual route will look nothing like this.
• A dot with a number indicates the mile markers.
• A line across the route with an arrow identifies where there is an elevated malaria risk and i should be on medication.

As the anti-malaria medication i have selected is?Doxycycline, which i need to take 2 days before and 28 days after visiting a risk area, I?m pretty much expecting to take them consistently for the first 2 years. Luckily some people take this for a long time for other reasons without any elevated health risks.