Injections!

We are in the Masta travel clinic in Cambridge completing one of their forms prior to getting advice on immunisation. We had the standard jabs ones at our GP but were advised to contact the specialist clinic for more advice.

As we complete the forms it becomes clear that the length and nature of our travel (local transport, travel in the countryside, malaria infected areas etc) means that only in a few places (UAE, Singapore, Japan and Canada) does our itinerary place us in the low risk 'Tourist' or medium risk 'Reasonable' categories - for much of our travel we are in the high risk 'Rural' category and will need immunisation against Rabies, Hepatitus B, and Japanese Enchephalitus. Three injections at each of three visits - and at £40 plus per injection I leave you to work out just how much this is costing - there goes a big hole in the budget!

We are also given sheets of information about the countries we are visiting and the risks involved - a bit too much information really (30,000 deaths per year from Rabies in India for example!). We are also briefed on the three possibilities for anti malaria treatment - the first needs only one pill a week and continuation for only one week after the relevant areas, but costs a couple of arms and a leg for every pill, the second one you take daily but gives you nightmares ('and not just whilst you are taking it but afterwards' warns the nurse) and is clearly only for the most mentally robust and the third needs a pill a day, continuation for one month and will ulcerate your throat if you don't take it with lots of liguid and keep standing up afterwards! Some choice there! And our packs now need to accommodate a mosquito net.