Vaccinations for Vietnam

With that ammount of Vaccination rattling around inside you, the cure could end being worse than the disease.
I would certainly agree with the shots for Hepatitus and would strongly suggest that you also get a flu shot
Have a good supply of Mosquito repellant with high DEET content and maybe some medication for Conjunctivitus which is prevalent now and then. The Vietnamese call it Red Eye.
Many of the other Vaccinations you mentioned you should have had anyway in your home country in my opinion.
Wash your hands often and keep the hand sanitizer on you at all times if you are moving around.
Finally I once copped a dose of Tinea in Vietnam that took months to clear, found the Potassium Permanganate best for that.

@Vegetivita,

Which city in Vietnam?
Here in Saigon, you can get most (if not all) of those vaccinations  in the Pasteur Institute.
Both locals and expats visit Pasteur to get their shots.
You can take the shots in the international clinics (e.g. Family Medical) as well.

senwl wrote:

Which city in Vietnam?

I'll be in the Binh Duong province so it's near enough to HCM.

I'll check into the Pasteur Institute, thank you very much!

Oh yeah you definitely need all those. 

Every day I am walking in clouds of malarial mosquitos through typhoid floods of cholera in D7, rabid bats diving at my ears, junkies sticking me with their needles, old guys coughing their TB on me in the bus while kids with fat cheeks and spots on crutches grab me.

Unless you are going to be camping out in jungles and mountains, get the Hep and tetanus and bring a tube of Neosporin, you'll be right.

CDC bulletin
SOS bulletin

Neosporin, definitely.  Our second tube is almost empty.

There are two things we've been using for mosquitoes: my personal blend of essential oils and a supply of Soffel lotion.  Essential oils,  I blend myself.  Soffel, I bought in local pharmacies (20K at all pharmacies, cost upwards to 37K at many supermarkets.)  Soffell contains 13% Deet, but the moisturizing property of plants and vegetable  oils made it pleasant to the skin. 

Haven't felt the need to use anything else.

.

gobot wrote:

Oh yeah you definitely need all those. 

Every day I am walking in clouds of malarial mosquitos through typhoid floods of cholera in D7, rabid bats diving at my ears, junkies sticking me with their needles, old guys coughing their TB on me in the bus while kids with fat cheeks and spots on crutches grab me.

Unless you are going to be camping out in jungles and mountains, get the Hep and tetanus and bring a tube of Neosporin, you'll be right.

Haha, fair enough.  Thank you.

Ciambella wrote:

13% Deet

Have you found that to be ample protection during your time there?

Vegetivita wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

13% Deet

Have you found that to be ample protection during your time there?

Yes.  When we're out and about In the daytime or when we're on the balcony in the evening (we don't have mosquitoes in the apartment), I use my essential oil blend and it's enough.  At night when we go out to eat, or when we travel to places where mosquitoes are more prevalent, we use Soffell at all time.  In our recent trip to Phu Quoc, we used Soffell even when sleeping inside mosquito net.  Came home after one week with 3 bites on me (I'm a mosquito magnet) and not even one on husband.

In my and all of my relatives' experiences, Soffell is enough to keep mosquitoes and other insects away.  I've only been using it for a year (no bite, except the ones in PQ) but they've been using it for decades.

Go to any hospital in Vietnam, a Dr will be happy to practice their english with you.

they will give you some of the injections or direct you to a local clinic ( you may have to wait a > 4 weeks) for the rest.

even if you go to the pasteur institute ( never figgerred if they r private or public or charity?)  700k dong a shot.

whatever u do, it wouldn't need more than $100 here for exactly the same shots.

Don't need cholera etc and, as your a native English speaker, it is extremely unlikely u would need any shots at all

To the multiple people in this thread that suggested I get a Hepatitis shot, it requires a 2nd shot at 6 months but by then I will be out of the USA and in Vietnam.

Should I try to buy the the 2nd dose and bring it with me to be administered by a Vietnamese doctor at the appropriate time or is using 1 brand and a different brand later not a big deal?

have u tried wikipedia hepatitis vaccinations?

u r probably ok

how do people like you survive even in your own country?

Vegetivita wrote:

Should I try to buy the the 2nd dose and bring it with me to be administered by a Vietnamese doctor at the appropriate time or is using 1 brand and a different brand later not a big deal?

Wouldn't hurt to buy and bring the second dose. There are a mostly generic brands here (that's how drugs are kept cheap in the 3rd world) so good chance you wouldn't get a perfect match.
About mosquitos, I don't know about Binh Duong, but I lived in 3 neighborhoods in Saigon, rarely saw any mosquitos or bugs at all, outside of ants (on the 9th floor!), roaches, the odd moth. There were tons more biting things in California.

gobot wrote:

outside of ants (on the 9th floor!)

Here in the 6th floor.
Sometimes they come in droves.

I also seldom see mosquitoes in HCMC.
In my wifes home in Long An I use Anti Brumm® Forte which I brought from Switzerland.
And my wifes family light for me any incense sticks against mosquitoes.

Hmmm, that's the extreme list of vaccinations/barriers to cover you to some extent for everything you could theoretically encounter, including in your home country.

It sounds to me like they're out to cover their backsides and/or to fleece you for all they can get.

Unless you intend to go hiking and camping in remote territory, just make sure you have your local vaccinations at home, such as the 10-yearly (?) DTTP (or whatever it's called these days), maybe rabies in remote areas, and maybe some malarial prophylactic for up to six months or so.

Dengue is a bigger danger than malaria, especially in the cities, and there's no protection against that apart from preventing mosquito bites.

We (my wife, young daughter and I) have been living in Saigon for four years and Kuala Lumpur for four years before that, and we only had the standard Australian shots. As a motorcyclist, however, I make sure my tetanus is up to date.

I'm happy for anyone to correct me if I'm too cavalier.

Rob

I just booked a last minute holiday to Hanoi for 3 weeks, I don't have any of these shots???