Southeast Asia Tour 2015
Bangkok | Thailand
21 Nov 2015 | Sat
Day 03 of 46
Thai Travel Clinic in Bangkok
For those who do any international travel, it’s always good practice to make sure you have your latest vaccinations.
When traveling to southeastern Asian countries, such as Thailand, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommend that you verify and “top off” your routine vaccines such as:
- Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine
- Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine
- Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine
- Polio vaccine
- Yearly Flu Shot
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
After this (depending on the destination), you may want to add one (or more of the following):
- Hepatitis B
- Japanese Encephalitis (JE)
- Malaria
- Rabies
- Yellow Fever
Of these listed, we have most of all the basic ones covered, except for Japanese Encephalitis (JE). For most travelers, the risk is extremely low but depends on where you are going, the time of year, your planned activities, and the length of the trip. If your travel to Thailand is less than 30 days, you are considered low-risk and do not require the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine. What scares me about this disease is that once you have contracted it, there is no cure. Typically, one does not survive this disease, however, if you are one of the lucky ones, you will probably have serious permanent neurological and cognitive problems.
So with this being said, we have been wanting to get the Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination. The difficulty is since this is typically a disease that only takes place in South Asian countries, the vaccination is difficult to obtain in the US. If you can find it, it is very expensive to get (such as $300 – 500 per shot).
This is where the Thai Travel Clinic in Bangkok comes into the picture (and rescue). The Thai Travel Clinic is a facility within the “Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University”. They provide comprehensive services in the area of travel/tropical medicine including pre and post-travel counseling, immunization, prevention of malaria, and information on emerging diseases. All of this is done at a reasonable cost and on an outpatient basis. They also provide a “walk-in” Saturday service (9 am – 12 Noon) – which is what we did.
After we arrived around 10:15 am, we checked in with a nurse and received some basic paperwork to fill out. Once we finished our paperwork, they took us in to have “Pre and Post-Travel Counseling” with the doctor. The doctor verified our travel plans and explained in detail about vaccination and how long it would be effective (2 years). In addition to the JE vaccination, Kanchana decided to add the Pneumonia vaccine as well. After we finished the counseling session, we paid for the vaccination service along with picking up the vaccinations. The nurses administered the vaccination shots, and then we were on our way. All of this only took a little over an hour (we left at 11:20 am).
The cost for the JE vaccine came to less than $13 per person ($12.72) and $75 for Kanchana’s Pneumonia vaccine. Here’s a total breakdown of the fees:
- JE Vaccine – $12.72 (2)
- Pneumonia Vaccine – $75.00 (1)
- Hospital Service Fee – $1.39 (2)
- Doctor Fee – $5.58 (2)
- New Registration Fee – $0.56 Cents (2)
- Injection Fee – $1.12 (2)
All in all, we were very pleased with the nurse’s/doctor’s care and thought the costs were very reasonable.
