Travelling to India- Rabies vaccine or not?

londoner1998

Hello

I am travelling to India for a month ion the 27th on a much anticipated trip. I have just seen the travel nurse, who recommended getting the rabies shots (3 of them) just in case. As it happens, I had a chat with my yoga teacher last week in which she mentioned this- and she doesn't get any other innoculations at all. She was bitten by stray dogs in Goa years ago and the experience was terrible- she had to be injected with all that stuff afterwards and had a very bad reaction to the first shot..

Can anyone advice? I will more likely than not have it, for peace of mind, although I am planning to stay away from dogs (monkeys are a different matter, they jump on you) but it is expensive and my partner (who will travel with me but then go on a different route with his daughter) is not bothered by it at all. I am worrying about them...

Thank you,

Mr_Wang

Having been to just about every corner of India I have never had it.

India is quite advanced in terms of medical facilities and most major cities are quite capable of dealing with your medical needs to a high standard. The country has one of the most extensive transport networks in the world and so really, you're never that far from a hospital.

realised

I've been to India many times and never had it either. Dogs tend to get agressive if you do something to provoke them. I've been around many dogs whilst in India and never had any problems.

With regards to Monkeys, don't go near them. At all. And make sure you keep your things close and don't do what my younger brother once did and offer it some of his ice cream :rotfl:. Gave my poor brother the fright of his life when it chased after him

Btw. I just remembered, my dad (who lived in India when he was younger) got bitten by a dog. But he was rushed straight to hospital and treated and was fine after. (He did however, step on the dogs tail)

To be totally honest, I'd be more worried about the things that are to a certain extent out of your control - like malaria etc

I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine without a vaccination.

Doshwaster

Nope, I've never had a rabies jab for India (or anywhere else in South and South East Asia) either and the travel medicine specialist I use has never even suggested one. I wouldn't even put rabies in the top 20 things to be worried about. If anything is going to get you in India it will be the traffic - and you cannot get immunised against that!

Still, it's wise to take all sensible precautions. Don't try making friends with stray dogs no matter how much they may look in need of help and be very careful with monkeys as rabies can be endemic in some areas.

londoner1998

Thank you all- in the clear light of day, I woke up feeling it is probably overkill- We went to India three years ago for the first time and rabie didn't factor in our vaccines plan. At all. I will be staying in an urban area where I have been before - and have no intentions of getting close to the dogs that doze in the afternoon heat. As for monkeys, the same, there are not many where I am. I will be doing yoga most of the time and I think I will probably be too tired/dozey to hang around too much. My partner hates dogs anyway and I don't see him tempting fate...

Thank you ...

bobthedambuilder

I lived and worked on a construction project in rural India (Orissa) for 9 months and did not have any rabies injection or any problems with dogs. There were packs of feral dogs everywhere, most with mange and a really sorry sight, but they would generally run away rather than approach you. I certainly wouldn't advise attempts at petting or feeding, however sorry you may feel.

Voyager2002

The chances are that you will not have any 'dog incidents' and so will never be exposed to rabies. However, the unexpected does happen from time to time...

Suppose that you come into contact with a dubious dog (or monkey). And I don't say "bite", because a small amount of saliva is enough to transmit rabies. Unless the dog can be captured or killed (so that it can be tested for rabies so that they know what to do with you) you will have to assume that it was infected. In which case: (i) if you had already been vaccinated then further treatment is routine and easy, and you could afford to be relaxed about the whole situation, but (ii) if you had not already been vaccinated, you would have to treat the situation as a medical emergency. You would need to abandon any plans and go directly to a treatment facility, and take a course of painful injections. Not nice!

claire16c

I got the rabies jab when I went travelling. it cost about £100 but I figured that was nothing if the worst happened. If you get rabies, you die. End of.

If you dont get the jab - and get bitten - you will have to have an injection that is made up of some part of blood - I think its the plasma or antibodies or something, I dont know what it is, but, if you have had the rabies jab then you wont have to have that part. Then whether or not youve had the rabies jab, you then have to have another rabies jab.

The rabies jab also gives you an extra 24 hours to get to a hospital. So youve got 48 hours instead of 24.

I didnt want to run the risk of having an injection made up of something that if not properly screened could be infected with something else like say hepatitis etc. Also, I read about some hospitals running out of the stuff they have to inject you with.

but , I will add, we were staying on some fairly remote islands in Thailand, so I was also worried about getting to a hospital in time. Which you dont really need to worry about.

whatyadoinsucka

remote islands in thailand, are there any left..

i have never bothered with rabies jabs, in hot countries these dogs mainly want to sleep and avoid human contact, you have 24 hours.
and like others before me its the roads that ill kill you. if anything


although in puerto natalas chile i might recommened a rabies jab i've never seen angrier packs of dogs.

claire16c

yeah I went to one of the least developed - Koh Lipe - people living in the trees/wooden shacks in the woods there, really really poor. There was boat that left twice a day to Malaysia. So say you got bitten just after the boat left, you would have had to have waited around 12-15 hours for the next one, then an hour and half to get back to Langkawi and then maybe half an hour to get to the hospital, wait in a queue etc - so getting close to the 24 hours - and then of course hoping that hospital had enough of the injection and isnt infected with anything.

They possibily may have been able to arrange an emergency boat but I would not have wanted to find out!

Also the dogs on Koh Lipe followed anyone who had anything ( including plastic bags) resembling food. We had some that barked outside our hut allllll night long. and we couldnt sit and eat anything outside because they would come right up to us. Which was made worse by a french couple who let this one dog into their hut to eat food!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

What I would advise you to do is look at your travel insurance and see if you're covered if you don't have the injection just to make sure as im sure hospital bills could mount up if you did get infected.