COnsider Rabies Vaccinations BeFOre Travel Especially for Travel To Asia

There is a network of clinics around the world seeing people who are unwell during or after travel. Information about the health problems travellers need to be seen for at these clinics is collected and analysed. It is notable that 74% of those needing to be seen for medical care after mammal bites had been bitten in Asia (42% in South East Asia and 32% in other parts of Asia.) This compared with only 9% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. Top countries were Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, China and India. While the data probably partly reflects the numbers of travellers to the different destinations and where the clinics are situated it also clearly shows the higher risk of mammal bites in Asia than other regions. Another study showed that travellers from NZ and Australia departing from Bangkok airport had been bitten more often than people from other countries. This probably reflects that fact that we are not used to thinking about rabies as we are fortunate not to have it here. Remember that mammal bites in most countries are a big nuisance and really try not to play with dogs, monkeys or other mammals. It is a shame that pretravel rabies vaccinations are expensive but they make a mammal bite much less stressful. Certainly consider getting them when travelling to Asia.