Getting sick away from home isn't a fun time. Please make sure you take the necessary health checks before flying.
Contact your local GP or hospital to make an appointment as soon as possible. Ideally at least four weeks before you leave. Your local GP or hospital will have your history and advice you on what vaccines to take.
Recommended Vaccines
Here is our list of recommendations. Please seek professional advice from your local GP.
- Make sure your primary courses and boosters are up to date.
- Courses or boosters advised: Diphtheria; Tetanus.
- Other vaccines to consider: Hepatitis A; Hepatitis B; Rabies; Typhoid; Japanese Encephalitis.
Health Insurance
We strongly recommend health insurance while traveling abroad. Click here to book your insurance for traveling to Vietnam.
Notes
Hepatitis A:
Spread through consuming contaminated food and water or person to person through the faecal-oral route.
Japanese Encephalitis:
Spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. This mosquito breeds in rice paddies and mainly bites between dusk and dawn. Risk is highest for long-stay travellers to rural areas, particularly if unable to avoid mosquito bites.
Rabies:
Spread through the saliva of infected animals (especially dogs, cats, bats and monkeys), usually through a bite, scratch or lick to broken skin. Risk is higher for those working or living in remote or rural areas (with no easy access to medical facilities), longer-stay travellers, those planning on undertaking activities such as trekking, cycling, or running in a 'high risk' country, those working with, or regularly handling animals or bats, as part of their job, and children. Even after receiving pre-travel rabies vaccine, urgent medical advice should be sought after any animal or bat bite.
Tetanus:
Spread through contamination of cuts, burns and wounds with tetanus spores. Spores are found in soil worldwide. A total of 5 doses of tetanus vaccine are recommended for life in the UK. Boosters are usually recommended in a country or situation where the correct treatment of an injury may not be readily available.
Typhoid:
Spread mainly through consumption of contaminated food and drink. Risk is higher where access to adequate sanitation and safe water is limited.
