five 'pincushion' mack is going South

[fivemack]

The nurse who does travel vaccinations at the Bridge Street Health Centre is very nice, but takes a great deal of pleasure in informing novice southbound travellers of the many ways it is possible to become problematically unwell in even the reasonably civilised parts of the bottom of Africa. So:

5 Feb morning: Hepatitis A+B booster ✔

5 Feb evening: Rabies 1 ✔

sometime next week: sort out Zambia visa (turns out it costs $50 at the border)

12 Feb morning: Typhoid, Rabies 2, collect prescription for malaria prophylaxis ✔

5 Mar morning: Rabies 3, Hepatitis A+B booster 2

6 Mar: buy bulk quantities of dioralyte and 50% DEET, also light-weight long-sleeved shirts quant. suff.

Packing notes:

• SLEEPING BAG AND LINER


• POWDER FOR WASHING CLOTHES BY HAND

The practice nurse suggests I have a hair-cut before leaving.

13 Mar evening: fly LHR-DXB-JNB
14-27 March: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/UOQ (16-24 March are in malarial areas, if I read the itinerary and http://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations/africa/botswana/botswana-malaria-map.aspx correctly)

Comments

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a Rabies vaccination for humans!

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

It's not a vaccination as such; it boosts the immune system sufficiently that you have a week rather than 24 hours to get the heavy-duty rabies treatment if you're bitten by a rabid animal.

24 hours is really not enough to get to a well-equipped European hospital from the middle of the Okavango delta, and a week is, so I'm taking the shots.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

Seems surprising that the FitForTravel page on Botswana doesn't mention bilharzia, which I thought was a risk round that neck of the woods...