Health

MUNICIPAL PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT
About a half year before the start of our journey we went to the Dutch MPHD (the GGD) to get ourselves informed about the health risks of our journey. We've explained about our plans and the countries we wanted to visit. For each of the countries they gave us advice about the health risks and the vaccinations we had to get. The Dutch MHPD (GGD) has lots of experience about foreign traveling and the health risks this gives. Our reason to go to the MHPD a half year before our leave is that we've enough time for getting vaccinated. A lot of the vaccinations have to be repeated a few times during a couple of months. We have a International Certificate of Vaccination against yellow fever. This is a medical passport where every vaccination we've got is documented with a signature and stamp. In a few countries some vaccinations are obliged and the medical passport can show the authorities we have them.

THE VACCINATIONS
Because we've been in Asia before we already had our medical passport and also some of the vaccinations. Steven has been traveling in India for half a year and for that trip he had most of the vaccinations that are still working. Marlous had to get some extra vaccinations to provide her for the long-term duration of protection. As cyclists we form a nice object for wild dogs. Because of the risk for a dog bite we have decided to get a rabies vaccination. The rabies vaccination gives us more time after a dog bite. We still have to get vaccinations after one of us is bitten by a dog but instead of 24 hours we have more time to get to a hospital.

The vaccinations we have:
Vaccination    Number of vaccinations    Duration of protection    Description
Thyphoid    1 x    3 years    Protects against Typhus
Hepatitis A+B    4 x    A=15 years, B= lifetime    Protects against jaundice and hepatitis
Diphtheria, Polio, Tetanus    1 x    10 years    Protects against diphtheria, polio and tetanus
B.C.G.    1 x    Lifetime    Gives first protection against the most serious forms of tuberculosis like meningitis.
Rabies    3 x        Gives first protection against rabies. After a bite we still need vaccinations.
Cholera Stamp    1 x        For Cambodia we need a stamp of the cholera vaccination in our medical passport. The vaccination has only duration of protection for a half year. In the Netherlands they don't provide this vaccination anymore.

MALARIA
During our journey we will travel through countries where there is malaria. To protect us against malaria we've got the advice to use some malaria medication. They advised us to use the following malaria tablets:

Paludrine:
This is a medicine, which can be used in a lot of countries. The tablets have to be taken two times a day.

Lariam:
There are some areas where the malaria mosquito is resistant against Paludrine. For these areas we’re advised to take Lariam. Lariam has to be taken once a week.

Besides the precautions of taking anti malaria tablets we'll also take our precautions with the clothes we'll wear. The malaria mosquito is most active during sunrise and sunset. At that time we'll wear clothes with long sleeves covering most parts of our bodies. On the parts that aren't covered we'll put anti mosquito spray.

FIRST AID
We both have had a few First Aid courses during the past. Those courses come in very handy now during our trip. We're taking care of a good filled First Aid kit with enough bandages and plasters. The first aid kit will get its own standard place in one of our bicycle bags.

DENTIST
A half year before our departure we both went to the dentist for a big check-up. As a precaution the dentist took some pictures so he could see if there were any problems.