If you plan on visiting Africa sometime in the near future, you must be sure you have all the mandatory vaccines for Africa up to date; as a European or American citizen, some diseases might not concern you at home, but they would be very easy to catch while on your trip. These are five travel health advice, to be more precise, five vaccines that are mandatory for Africa.
- Influenza
Influenza, or “the flu” as we know it, is caused by the eponymous virus. The symptoms are lassitude, spiking fever, sore muscles, headaches, and nausea followed by vomiting.
You don’t want to spoil your trip by getting it, this is why this is a mandatory vaccine for travelers. For people that suffer from asthma, the vaccination for influenza is not an option, it’s a must because it can worsen their troubles with breathing.
- Polio
Poliomyelitis or simply “polio” is a horrible disease that can render you immovable, with very small chances of recovering. This is an absolutely mandatory vaccine for Africa since two cases of polio were reported there this year, one year after it was declared polio-free. Furthermore, it is highly infectious.
- Measles
Measles was the culprit in the case of 96.000 deaths just in 2013, most of all in Africa. These deaths could’ve been prevented through vaccines so saying that this is a mandatory vaccine for Africa would be redundant.
The disease manifests through an infectious rash that spreads all over the body, a very high fever, and the inflammation of the eyes. It can produce mild or severe complications like, for instance, full-blown pneumonia. The vaccine prevents as much as a whopping one million deaths per year.
- Typhoid fever
Africa suffered some of the most tragic outbreaks of typhoid fever in the world. Symptoms include abdominal pain, migraines, and general weakness. This is one of the vaccines you would need for safaris and it’s a mandatory vaccine for Africa since this is the place where this disease was endemic not just once.
- Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A couldn’t be absent from our list of vaccinations for Africa, because it is the place where this disease of the liver is the most prevalent, due to the poor sanitation system.
It manifests through jaundice (the yellowing of the eyes and the skin), nausea, diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, and high fever. It is not as dangerous as hepatitis B and C, but it still can cause liver failure, which is lethal.
Travel health, medication, and proper immunization through vaccines are extremely important, especially when you plan to travel to a country where the sanitation is faulty at best.
Our organisms are not adjusted to certain maladies because we’ve never encountered them and a minor infection could prove to be lethal. Vaccines are simple prevention measures that can save your life, literally. Make sure you have all these vaccines before you head to Africa and enjoy your trip.
