I am soon leaving for Taiwan, and I’m in the process of getting some recommended vaccinations. On the list of these recommendations is a rabies shot. I’m assuming that there may be a low risk of rabies in the city, where I will be living, but my doctor informed me that roaches in apartment buildings can carry the virus too. Is she scaring me into paying the extremely high cost of this shot? 
There is no rabies in Taiwan. You don’t need the shot.
I’ve been warned to tone down my language, so I won’t say what I really think of your “doctor”. Your doctor is full of it. Only mammals can get rabies. Mosquitoes don’t spread AIDS, neither. Think about it, if cockroaches carried rabies we’d all be dead by now, there are so many of them in everybody’s houses, they’d crawl up in our beds and bite us and every human in the world would die from rabies infection from crazy cockroaches.
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Maoman is right - Taiwan is Rabies free. The most important shots you should get before coming to Taiwan are the Hep immunizations, A, B and the C series. I suggest that instead of going to your local GP who may not be aware of all the ins and outs of this, you should go to your public health clinic. They should have a department which deals specifically with overseas immunizations and have the most up to date info.
I can’t find my records right now but I know that the entire series which I received cost me about $110.00 Cdn total.
Only shots ya need for taiwan would be a Hep B and a Tetanus booster. Bring some anti-acid (maalox/mylanta) and some cough syrup (i prefer delsym it’s over the counter) just in case the climate change and food doesn’t take right away.
Hep B is a 3 shot over 3 months process. If you don’t have the time, don’t freak you can get them here in Taiwan. Tetanus is a one shot deal. You get this boost once every 5-10 years depending on occupation and lifestyle.
I don’t know what you are talking about but Rabbis are just like the rest of us. they can get roaches too.
[quote=“totallytika”]Maoman is right - Taiwan is Rabies free. The most important shots you should get before coming to Taiwan are the Hep immunizations, A, B and the C series.[/quote]Consider getting the Japanese B Encephalitis immunization as well. See here for more info:
[forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 062#212062](Need immunization to come to Taiwan?
Also get the SARS vaccine. 
BTW, unless things have changed in the last three months, there’s no vaccine (or treatment) available for HepC, so don’t have sex or share needles with anyone who has it.
Did you see a Taiwanese cockroach foam at the mouth and refuse to drink water; is that what caused you concern? Oh, I did not read your post carefully, you are elsewhere getting ready to move to Taiwan…on a serious note, you might want to report your doctor to the Board of Medical Quality Assurance (or whatever they call it where you live).
Your doctor is either trying to overbill your insurance company, bilk you personally out of some money or they are trying to win a bet with one of their fellow doctors that they can b.s. a patient into believing that roachs can have rabies. Rabies is a disease carried only by mammals, not insects.
Official Disclaimer: Attorney Brian L. Kennedy is not a medical doctor but as a trial attorney he does have the ability to detect b.s. at a range of up to 100 meters away.
As to what shots to get, take the advice of the other posters.
take care,
Brian Juris Docktor
Be sure to update your childhood immunizations, you may need boosters for some of them. I think I took some pills for a polio booster.
Actually your doctor is on the cutting edge of modern day research and social science. Rural roaches, since the advent of mass automation, have grown quite lazy and lost the ability to carry much beyond their own weight. However, the new economy also brought upscale living to the cities. Roaches that can afford apartments in the city are often found in weight rooms and spas bulking up and developing some incredible tone and sculpting! It is more than true that today
No worries on the rabid roaches unless they’re chasing you down an alley at 2am while you’re trying to get home. However, have you seen the scary hairy spiders thread?
But roaches don’t bite SuperCurl. You got nothing to worry about. :bouncy:
Get a new doctor. By the way - what country are you from?
Of course roaches can have babies. They lay eggs which hatch and send little roach babies all over the place. The babies then grow up to be huge, flying monsters, and when they’re teens they will crawl into your ears while you’re asleep and make you wake up with a horrible pain.
The average roach egg sac contains over 250,000 eggs. Given an adequate food supply and low level of predators (ginkos, and big hairy spiders) approximately 30% of these babies will…
Oh… you said rabies…
Never mind!!!
In memory of Rosanne Rosannadanna
No, no, Ginko (er, gingko, er, ginkgo) is a type of tree. You meant GEICO.
or perhaps you meant gecko? No worries. 
Thanks for setting me straight. I did indeed mean ghetto. Because the ghetto is a moist environment rich with cockroaches. This is why we must get our rabies shots before living in a ghetto apartment.
I had a friend once who was living in the ghetto, and he got rabies and man did he look disgusting. His face got all yucky and he started slurring his speech and he didn’t use condoms and he voted republican. And then, one day he walked out of the bathroom with a saliva soaked towel and…
Oh… you said gecko?
Never mind!
([/quote]
It is more than true that today
The roaches don’t, but some of the foreigners do 
.