In Reply to: Read the question posted by FORUM ADMINISTRATOR on Friday, 13. August 1999 at 16:18 Bali Time:
I am pretty sure that when most people ask what vaccinations they
"need" they are not refering to those which they are legally bound to have before entering a country, rather to those which will provide them with some imunological protection against parasites which they would not, through contact or childhood vaccinations have built up antibodies.
They, in otherwords wish to know which vaccinations or prophlactics (eg in the case of Malaria) are reccomended for travelers visiting the South East Asia Region.
I am sure that the majority of contributers to this forum will agree they are not experts, therefore there "reccomendations" are often neither use nor ornament, dare I even say that the forum admin has questionable knowledge regarding health advice judging from the above where tetanus and Hep vaccines are taken as read, whilst it is a pretty safe bet that the vast majority of people visiting this forum will have has a tetanus vaccination at some point in their lives I wonder how many have had the required booster jabs and are up to date with their vaccinations, as for saying the same regarding Hep A and B ("You should have that anyway!") that is just plain wrong.
There are numerous other questionable "facts" in "Read the Question" but to elaborate futher would make dull reading.
I do appreciate that should the Heirachy of this forum provide poor health advice, it would be their heads on which any repercusions would fall, yet at the same time visitors to tropical areas need sound health advice, therefore how about a link to a website I have reccomended in the past - Centre For Disease Control (if they can't get it right, who can?
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/travel.html