Do you travel frequently for business?
Do you often travel internationally, sometimes at short notice? Perhaps you are setting up a branch office in China or your company is expanding into new markets.
You should consider having a travel medicine consultation and getting vaccines that may be recommended or required for possible future trips. If you often travel on short notice, you should consider “loading up” on the vaccines you might need for future trips.
Many travel vaccines need several doses or should be given a few weeks prior to the trip to be most effective. If your upcoming trip poses no risk for yellow fever, for example, but you are planning on a big trip to Africa next year for vacation, share that information with your physician or travel clinic nurse, and plan ahead.
Your activities and hobbies may increase your risk of certain infections. Spelunkers should get rabies vaccine because of exposure to bats in caves, but so should joggers traveling to parts of the world where canine rabies is sill common, such as China.
Rabies kills over 50,000 people a year in the developing world and jogging increases your chance of dog bites. Your main trip may be to a large city, but if you think you might visit rural areas for recreation, additional preventive measures and vaccines may be needed, especially for infections transmitted by mosquitoes.
The most common cause of injury in travelers abroad is motor vehicle accidents. While no vaccine prevents these injuries and deaths, seatbelts and helmets do! The developing world poses the highest risk of death from car accidents.
There are many reasons for this, including more inexperienced, “first-generation” drivers, narrow and crowded roadways which are less well maintained, less enforcement of driving standards, poor road lighting at night, multiple-use roads (wagons and foot traffic as well as cars and motorcycles and bicycles), and less-developed emergency services.
Wear your seatbelt and use a helmet on motorcycles and avoid travel at night whenever possible.
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