Hepatitis A vaccine when travelling?

Not sure whether this should be here or in the travel section?

But anyway, we are heading to Malaysia at Easter time with the 3 kids and whilst recently at the docters for another matter I asked the question about were there any vaccines we needed. Docter was quite adament that HEP A vaccine was required for 4/5 members of our family (DD2 is too young to get it). My mums docter also recommended it.

Now we have travelled quite extensively with the kids o/s but never to Asia, so we have never had to consider vaccines before. So if you have traveled to Asia have you had the vaccine? Or would you have it?

Incidentally when I took the scripts into the chemist to ask her she said she was Malaysian and didnt think it was necessary.:dunno: And the vaccine is currently in short supply so we would have to order it in at a cost of $85 per adult and $55 per child.

So I dont know what to do, from my research it appears that children, if they get it, get a mild version - the people most at risk are over 50's.

So would you do it or not?

Yep I went to KL, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in one trip and had Hep A before going, it was recommended by my Dr and by my friends Dr's.

Have fun planning the trip :) and just for the record the needle hurts! lol

Thanks for that! Anyone else got any suggestions or advice?

The problem i see with hepA is that it is more easily transmitted than other things. It is fecal-oral. So if someone goes to the toilet, doesn't wash their hands properly and prepares your food and they have HepA, there is a chance you will get it. DH had his vacc before going to Thailand and i had mine when traveling to Fiji, but the kids were too little. DD1 had it before we moved to PNG, but DD2 was still too little. I will get DD2 vaccinated in due time, but when she's a little bit older. We are in a position where i buy, wash and cook all our own food so our risk isn't as high as if we were eating out a lot. Having said that hygiene in this place is terrible so our risk would still be quite high.

My reasoning against the vacc is that is generally a treatable disease. There are fatalities but with access to proper medical care they are rare.

We just got back from Bali and didn't have the hep A jab. Our doctor said pretty much same as junglemum, it's all about hygeine, so plenty of handwashing. LOL, I even wiped my cutlery with antibacterial wipes JIC.. I would be more inclined to make sure your tetanus jabs are all up to date.
Have a great trip...

We went to Thailand when DD1 was 2 and we all had HepA vaccinations before going. My Dr is Asian and she said that she wouldn't take her own children there without giving them the vaccine first. Given that it is fecal-oral and DD1 was still putting everything in her mouth we decided that it would be best for her to have it and DP got his done so that they could do it together :lol: I had already had mine done previously.

Been to Asia a million times but never had it.... I thought hep b was fecal-oral.... confused now lol

You can test your immunity... before having the shot.

HepB and C are blood to blood. A is fecal-oral.
B&C are considerably more dangerous than A.