We have been in contact with Keswick School about next years (2024) Camps International trip to Ecuador & the Galapagos as we felt that a more integrated approach would be beneficial to all. Please share this post with anyone you know who may be going on this trip as it may help them to prepare.
Travel advice can be anything from very simple through to extremely complicated as it can incorporate numerous factors such as location, activities, age, medical conditions and attitude to risk. We attempt to use our knowledge and experience to recommend a vaccine regime which works best for the patient as it can involve multiple visits and considerable expense.
We will always advise against getting vaccines, where we feel that is unnecessary so what we suggest is our honest opinion of what is required according to the information we have received.
We may end up posting several updates for this trip, but here are the first steps that we recommend:
Obtain a vaccination history from your GP surgery. They can print this off for you and it will be handy having this as a personal record of vaccines received. Please print it out as scrolling through on a phone can make it easy to miss vaccines out. If you have received any vaccines at private clinics, get together the record they will likely have given you at the time. From experience, it is worth getting this history as we’ve seen patients who’ve had vaccines which they’d completely forgotten about.
It will be worth asking your surgery if they can provide any of the recommended vaccines on the NHS. Many surgeries no longer provide travel vaccines, but some do and may be able to administer some, if not all free of charge.
From the information provided to us about the trip, the following vaccines are recommended (please note that if you go elsewhere they may suggest different vaccines):
These vaccines are a must as basic cover:
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Diphtheria Tetanus & Polio
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Hepatitis A
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Typhoid
These vaccines should be seriously considered due to the location, activities and contacts made during this particular trip:
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Rabies (course of 3 jabs over 4 weeks)
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Hepatitis B (course of 3 jabs over 6 months)
We have no knowledge of the standard of sanitation where you will be staying so cannot accurately advise on Cholera, but it isn’t generally a recommended vaccine for this area.
Yellow fever vaccination is not required unless transiting a country with yellow fever. In this case Brazil would be the country of interest. We are not a yellow fever centre.
Antimalarials aren’t required for this trip. However, a repellent with 50% DEET would be recommended.
If you wish to book an initial appointment with us then please call the pharmacy on 01900822292. It would really help if you have already got your vaccination history to hand before doing this.
We can only recommend the vaccines you should receive for your travel. We appreciate the expense is a real consideration, but what you decide to go for is completely up to you. We have attempted to prioritise those diseases which are most likely to be a risk above to assist your decision making.
Thanks
Here are a few links you may find helpful
Ecuador vaccination recommendations
Galapagos vaccination recommendations