Did you know that 18% of travellers lose a precious day of their trip to illness – and 4% lose four days or more? Many potentially life-threatening illnesses can be prevented before you leave, with travel vaccinations. Don’t take any chances, read our top five tips on travel vaccinations . We’ll help you experience the best the world has to offer – safely and healthily.

1. Plan ahead

See your doctor at least six weeks before you travel and make sure you get the right vaccines for your destination, plus boosters for your childhood vaccines. Yes, your arm may hurt a bit, but it is better than getting malaria or rabies! Some vaccines require a longer period to take effect, but if you do forget… it’s never too late to vaccinate.

2. Protect your health

While you’re away, take appropriate precautions. If you are in a mosquito-prone area, wear light coloured, loose clothing and use insect repellent. Even if you’re staying in five-star luxury, avoid contaminated food and water (see our advice on avoiding those tummy bugs for more tips). And don’t forget to keep popping those malaria pills!

3. Check your destination

Don’t take your chances with yellow fever – up to 50% of unvaccinated people who get it die. Those aren’t great odds. And if you don’t have a certificate of vaccination, you can’t cross some borders and may even be quarantined when you return to Australia. Yellow fever vaccine is compulsory for parts of Africa and South America.

Keep up to date with any new health risks, such as SARS, by checking your destination on www.smarttraveller.gov.au before you go.

4. Don’t leave home without your…

The most common vaccine-preventable illness for travellers is Hepatitis A, a viral disease of the liver. It usually strikes in any country prone to travellers’ diarrhoea, so it’s highly recommended for travellers to any developing country. Vaccination against typhoid is also highly recommended when travelling to these regions – especially for backpackers. Seniors (travellers over 65 years) should also consider a pneumonia vaccine.

5. And did we mention insurance?

If you do become infected with a potentially life-threatening disease, you’ll want to get home, to proper medical care, as soon as you can. That’s where travel insurance becomes essential, even air-lifting you out of remote areas and ensuring you have a doctor immediately.

So, once you’ve had your jabs and checked your travel health insurance, you can relax and know you’ll have a stress-free and (hopefully) illness-free adventure travelling overseas.

Tags: Travel Vaccinations

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 7:46 am and is filed under Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.