Vaccinations for India

[Jessica.S.]

Hey Folks,

I'm a Fulbright full grant recipient to India for 2010-2011, and am looking for advice on what vaccinations I may need before heading over there. I've had most of the basic ones, but I'm mostly wondering about Japanese encephalitis and rabies. I will be based in Delhi, but will be traveling to rural areas quite a lot. If they were free, it would be a no-brainer, but these seem to be very expensive vaccinations! Japanese encephalitis costs about $600 for a two-shot series, while rabies costs about $900 for a 3 shot series. Ouch! Neither my health insurance or Fulbright will pay for it.

Any other India grantees out there who have had or not had these shots? Anyone know if these two vaccinations are available in India, and how advisable getting vaccinations in India is? Another question is malaria - any India grantees taking anti-malarial medication with them? I'd love to hear any thoughts anyone has!

Thanks!

[eucalyptus]

I'm not a Fulbright grantee but I've visited India a bunch of times, almost always including trips to rural areas. I've never gotten the vaccines for encephalitis or rabies, just Hep A & Typhoid. I don't know much about the encephalitis vaccine, but I do know that even if you have the rabies shots ahead of time, you'll have to get prophylactic shots anyway if you get a dog bite. What I mean is that if you get into a rabies scare situation, you still have to be treated with shots and stuff even if you have the vaccine (the vaccine just provides you with an additional level of safety). So, it's up to you of course, but I wouldn't bother with it.

If you do decide later that you need the shots, you can definitely get them safely in India, and they'll probably cost a lot less too. Just ask someone to recommend a reliable doctor/clinic and you should be good to go.

As for the anti-malarials, in the past I've sometimes had them and sometimes not. It really depends on where exactly you're going and in what season. If you can get them reasonably inexpensively, I'd probably do it.