What vaccinations do I need? General FAQ about rabies, Japanese Encephalitis, COVID vaccines etc

Vaccine FAQ:

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Should I get a Rabies vaccine?: our understanding is that the main benefit of this vaccine is that it can buy you time. If you are bitten by a dog, then regardless of vaccination status, you will need to seek emergency medical treatment to prevent rabies infection. If you were planning to be more than several hours drive away from a medical facility, then it would always be a good idea to have this vaccine in advance. As of January 2023, none of our programmes are ever planned in a location where there are no nearby competent medical facilities.

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Should I get a Japanese Encephalitis vaccine?: this is one of the more expensive vaccines, if you are able to get it then we recommend you do so. Our own medical advisors informed us that Gotoco team wouldn't need to get it for any of the destinations where we run projects. Ofcourse, one can never be too careful, if this is an option for you then please go ahead and get it. Remember, you should only take advice of a competent medical expert about this.

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Should I get a COVID vaccine: Yes! please do..

 Please please - if you don't have an exemption from a real (trained and accredited) medical doctor, then you should get this. Medical experts are in your nearest GP surgery, not on Youtube, please just consult medical experts on this one. This is the only vaccine that we always recommend you get. If you don't get it, apart from all of the medical risks you face and risks you give to others (e.g your students, your hosts etc) it is highly likely that you could become stranded by ever-changing travel rules. E.g you might be asked to book a 2x week stay in an expensive hotel on the other side of the world. If this happened to you and you didn't have very well established grounds for vaccine exemption, then you'd usually be required to self-fund for any related costs (which could be in thousands of £). Of course, if you had a genuine exemption then your insurance or our emergency funds might support you. 

At the time of writing, unvaccinated folks cannot transit in the USA, which makes it very hard to reach programmes in South America. While in January this year, overnight, Thailand brought back in COVID controls for the unvaccinated - making travel very hard for the unvaccinated. If you choose to be unvaccinated, you will face difficult and potentially very expensive travel planning.

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