IF, yes IF, I was a "normal " person traveling to Africa and had spent the 2 hours with Dr. Marilyn Bradford at TJUH travel medicine sevices as I did, my trip would have been cancelled.
I am one who declines the flu shot each year, yeah yeah yeah, I know! No, I have not gotten the flu....yet.
The plan was to get the yellow fever vaccine and the malaria prophylaxis, done. I was going to get the tetanus at my primary Dr office later this month. Well, between the newspaper articles and the pictures of Kenyan people dragging their legs due to polio I opted for the booster..Then we moved on to contaminated food and water- yep, typhoid vaccine!! That one's oral, it was pretty funny as she gives me 2 stickers, one for the frig and one the bathroom mirror and then a bright orange rubber bracelet ( livstrong-type) as major reminders as it's an every other day capsule for 7 days.
Then Dr. B touches on Leishmaniasis disease. Acquired by a bite of an infected sand fly. Dengue fever a viral infection spread by the bite of the female Aedes mosquitoes. Then she continued on with the typical traveler's diarrhea, what to avoid, safety tips and what to take in my medicine kit. She was extremely informative. I asked her if she travels a lot. She answers, " no, my husband won't get on a plane!" Pretty ironic.
