The first four are what we were given the other day. The rest we will take in the next couple weeks:
Shots
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Meningitis
- Rabies : Series of three shots.
- Tetanus
- Polio
- Yellow Fever : We have valid yellow fever vaccines until 2021, so we will not need to update this vaccine.
- Cholera : A powder and liquid mixed in water. We will drink this twice, each time a week apart.
- Typhoid Fever : Three pills. We take one on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In addition to these vaccines, we were both prescribed a years worth of malaria pills. These pills are NOT vaccines . We still need to take special care and protect ourselves from mosquito bites. These pills will be taken every Sunday starting two weeks before we leave, and we will not stop until we have been home for four weeks.
All our vaccines were documented in our WHO Yellow Card - a small yellow booklet for vaccine stamps which is internationally recognized. The main purpose of this card is to inform border officials about vaccinations required to enter the country. Basically the only vaccination that is consistently required for entry to African countries is yellow fever. Other vaccines are periodically required when there are outbreaks.
We are very fortunate that here in Spain we do not have to pay for our shots. These vaccines can add up and become very expensive. If we had gotten them in the U.S., we would have paid hundreds of dollars for each of us. The malaria pills are also extremely cheap in our specific case. Here we pay only 2.39€ for each two month quantity, when normally it would be at least 10 times more expensive in Spain. In the U.S. it could be even more expensive.
