According to my doctor at the Adventist hospital there is no typhoid vaccince in Taiwan. The CDC doesn’t carry it as Taiwan - :loco: - doesn’t have typhoid anymore.
So far I see my only option travelling to Hong Kong beforehand to get the innoculation. It takes 2-3 weeks to be effective so I can’t wait and get it at the start of my trip to Tibet.
he may be wrong, but he may well be right. a travel medicine specialist (if there is one here ) would know better, and they may import their own. typhoid is now extremely rare in taiwan. it is a sad reflection of the chinese neglect of tibet that it is still so common there, but it is also very common throughout the indian subcontinent and africa…
you would probably need two injections about 2-4 weeks apart with the older vaccine, but the new one (Typhim Vi) works from about 2 weeks after the single injection, as you point out. that needs a booster in 2 years, which can be the oral vaccine. the oral vaccine (Vivotif) is four pills taken over a week. that is effective from a few weeks after dosage and confers 5 year protection. neither is more than about 70% effective, though.
if you need protection from typhoid, you also need protection from hepatitis A. but as you are living in taiwan, you should already be vaccinated for that (hep A is rife here). costs about 500 bucks per shot for three shots over 6 months from any clinic. i don’t think it is govt sponsored. get it done soon! you are semi protected afer the second shot, about 6 weeks.
I was in the office when he called the CDC and heard them say no. It may be possible as you say that a private clinic imports it but that’s going to be very heard to find.
Hep A, I’m immune to as I’ve already had it. During the first Gulf War all the vaccines in Canada were going to soldiers. You’ll be fine, the nurse told me as I headed off to Guatemala. Three years later, I was.
sorry i can’t help more. looks like a trip to HK is on the cards, unless you just chance it and just rely on taking extra precautions in tibet, which is gonna be difficult… you have little control over who touches things you will later touch.
but the risk is actually quite small, and typhoid is not always fatal… though more strains are resistant to antiobiotics now.
Typhoid is not a shot, but 3 pills to be taken every other day. You’ll get slight symptoms or acute ones as I do. So maybe better don’t arrange any important meetings for the week you’re doing it.
Yes.
I have a lead-lined stomach and they still made me queasy.
Yes.
I have a lead-lined stomach and they still made me queasy.[/quote]
Yeah, which is another reason to not wait. If I get them in HK or Chengdu it will be right before I fly to Lhasa. I don’t want to be dealing with altitude (3600m) and a reaction to an injection at the same time.
Ok, anybody need anything in HK? 
there are two kinds of vaccine available these days.
one of them definitely is a shot. the other is tablets. some people feel nearly nothing, some much more, with either method.
and where did you find the vaccine? if it was in taiwan, please tell us…
I’m planning to do some travelling around SE Asia later this year and would probably need to update my vaccinations.
Anyone know of, or can recommend, an English speaking clinic or doctor I can turn to?
[quote]I’m planning to do some travelling around SE Asia later this year and would probably need to update my vaccinations.
Anyone know of, or can recommend, an English speaking clinic or doctor I can turn to?[/quote]
Adventist (Taian) Hospital on Bade Road. See the family doctor there (when you register ask for an English speaking doc).
That’s BaDe DunHua intersection if you get lost. Well, whether you manage to get lost or not, it’s still at that intersection.
well this is the most depressing thread I’ve read in my time here. Quoting MM, from another fred…
i’m finding out the hard way - like MM, I am going to Tibet. No typhoid jab possible in Hualien, been advised by local doc to try Taipei.
“Where in Taipei?”
“Ah, I don’t know.” 
Any advance on MM’s Hong Kong side trip - that’s just not an option, I don’t have the time.
When the Post are reporting this (Mar 2010), it seems even more ridiculous that the CDC doesn’t have a typhoid vaccine in its back pocket. It must have? 
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/foreign-affairs/2010/03/20/249061/DOH-vigilant.htm
and what happens when there’s an Indo quake and the Ciji volunteers are mobilised? You telling me they’re sent into the field with some buddhist texts and a hearty slap on the back.
Time for a few monday phone calls.
Called the CDC (centre disease control), and a wide cross-section of Taiwan’s top hospitals and clinics. There is still no typhoid vaccine on the island. Excuses range from: “there is no typhoid anymore in Taiwan” to “you have to get the vaccine when you travel to the risk country” (neatly overlooking the fact that the vaccine takes 2-3 weeks to be effective). They were the good replies.
so i ask myself, why am i living in such an arsewipe of a country?
The idea of not supplying a vaccine because there’s “no more of the disease here” is lunacy.
There’s no Yellow Fever in Taiwan, but you can still get Yellow Fever shots there.