Job Discussion Forums

vanisle · Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 6

My husband and I are leaving soon to drive to Mexico. We are planning to find work in Guadalajara or Morelia. Can anyone recommend which shots are necessary or a good idea?

Thanks

MELEE · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:29 pm Post subject:

No shots are required for entry into Mexico. All your regular shots should be up to date, MMR, Tetnus etc. I highly recommend typhoid fever vaccination, (It used to be oral, I don't know if it still is) and Hep A and B, which are both series so you have to get started ASAP. If you didn't have chicken pox you might want to talk to your doctor about that vaccination, I don't know if they give it to adults who don't work with children, but one of our teachers got chicken pox here a few years ago, it can be more dangerous for adults than children. Do not get talked into the cholera vaccination. It is only 50% effective and good hygenie practices can keep you from getting cholera.

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

Wow! I didn't get any shots or boosters before I came to Morelia. I hope that doesn't turn out to be a mistake.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I would recommend the Hep A/B shots and tetanus for pretty much anywhere in the world.

snorklequeen · Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:38 am Post subject: Shots

i know two people who contracted typhoid in Mexico; one was a Mexican national who now lives in the USA, who went to Oaxaca state on a missionary field trip way out in the boonies and took a "kitty bath" with rural river water and got typhoid. the other is a US citizen who has lived all over the world as a missionary and lives in Cuernavaca; one of his projects is working with people who live in a landfill/dump on the outskirts of the city. don't know exactly how he got exposed. neither of them had had the typhoid vaccination.

just fyi,

Queenie

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

Something I had which was completely optional, but is a nice little peace of mind given my lifestyle, is the rabies shots I had. I had 3, spaced over 3 months, and then a blood check at the end to make sure it had worked. It won't stop me getting rabies if I should get bitten, but it means if I'm in the middle of nowhere I have more time to get to a hospital and also will hopefully get to avoid the horrible injections into the gut that they give you as treatment.

However, I will say, that although I've never been bitten by an animal, rabid or otherwise, I am the kind of person that similar things happen to. About 4 days before a recent operation I managed to cut a huge trench into my foot on a piece of coral. If it'd got infected, they would have had to postpone my op, which I'd been waiting for for quite some time. Thank goodness for my tetanus jab which I'd had optionally years before.

So, if you like getting off the beaten track and going "ROAARRR!!! Action!!" fairly regularly, I'd suggest taking more precautions than if you're planning to stay mainly in the cities.

Good luck! Cool

Lozwich.

saraswati · Joined: 30 Mar 2004 Posts: 200

My mind set is really OFF today (or really ON depending how you see it). I read the title "recommended shots" and started thinking of tequila brands... Rolling Eyes

I third the recommendations for typhoid and Hep A/B. I've contracted both typhoid and Hep A in my years here.

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

hehehe..Tequila shots!

I have contracted typhoid here as well and I don't believe a vaccination would have prevented it. The doctor diagnosed it right away, explained it was related to Salmonella from a bad meal, and informed me that I had a combination of 3 strains, one of which is rare in Mexico. He added that it would be difficult for a vaccine to prevent the many strains of typhoid. 15 days on antibiotics and it was history.

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

Someone told me once that the typhoid injection doesn't stop you getting it, it just stops you dying if you have it. So maybe its another one of those injections that you should get if you're going to be away from medical care.

MELEE · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject:

Loz, that's actually the case with many vaccinations, like the chicken pox vaccine, which I guess no one on this board has had unless one of you is really a 10 year old kid in Ohio, it doesn't prevent you form getting it, in fact something like 10 % of the kids actually get chicken pox from the vaccine Shocked

, but it keeps you from getting a bad case of the chicken pox.

lozwich · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 1536

Urgh, that reminds me of when I had my yellow fever jab (which you don't need for Mexico, by the way). I had yellow fever, typhoid and rabies jabs all in one day, and I actually turned a weird shade of yellow and had to spend the day in bed. I felt awful with all those little bits of disease running rampage around my system. Sad