Vaccinations

[Tegeras 5]

My wife is about to start looking for a local hospital to get her vaccines done. She has no records at all of her previous shots so it looks like she has to start from scratch.

My question is this, which shots does she actually need? All of them? The Embassy in BKK has this list,

-- Acellular pertussis -- Hepatitis A
-- Hepatitis B
-- Influenza
-- Influenza type b (Hib) -- Measles
-- Meningococcal
-- Mumps
-- Pneumococcal -- Pertussis
-- Polio
-- Rotovirus
-- Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids -- Varicella

But the instructions say this,

If you do not have a vaccination record, the panel physician will work with you to determine which vaccinations you may need to meet the requirement. Certain waivers of the vaccination requirement are available upon the recommendation of the panel physician.
Only a physician can determine which of the listed vaccinations are medically appropriate for you, given your age, medical history and current medical.

She has no current medical history and isn't allergic to anything that she knows of but she is worried that so many shots at once might be bad for her.

Is it possible to contact the doctors listed on the Medical Exam instruction sheet? The doctors in her area are not used to dealing with these requirements and she currently is too far away from BKK to do a drop in visit to ask.

[Ning 619]

Most people only need MMR shots. Why cant she call one of the two hospitals in BKK to ask? They will probably tell her to come in for her medical when she is ready so they can determine what she needs. They are very competent and will not give her injections she doesn't need or would cause her medical problems.

Keep in mind as you plan this that she will be given the exams ect and she will leave the hospital with the forms required. One way to do this would be to notify the embassy she will bring in the forms on her interview date. Send that notification with the P 3 docs she will send in.

She will need to go to BKK at least one day prior to the interview date anyway. She could add one day to allow for the medical exam then interview the next morning.

It usually takes 3 days to have the visa put in the passport after the interview so you both will have to decide on how all of this will be done as to timing.

I did as I suggest myself. I arrived in BKK two days early. Did the medical. Interviewed. Went back 3 days later to get the passport and left Thailand that night for the USA.

[Tegeras 5]

So they can all be done on one day? I was under the impression that some vaccinations are done over time, such as Hepatitis B.

We do plan on being in BKK for at least 10 days but we wanted for the start of the 10 days to be the day before interview date. This would give us more time in case something came up during the interview that required a few days to resolve. This is also why we wanted to have all her vaccinations taken care of now and not wait until the last day to do it. That and if she happens to become ill because of them she will have time to recover.

Anyway she is calling them today and will start looking for hospitals and clinics around Loei that can administer them

Edited April 28, 2013 by Tegeras

[Ning 619]

Some shots require follow ups but those can be done later in the USA. She can get the shots easily in Loei so she can take the info to the hospital in BKK if she wants. The medical is pretty easy to get done anyway. I doubt she will become ill from what takes place. I don't know anyone that did but I suppose it could happen.

I know its impossible to not worry but you need to consider that if there were going to be a serious problems with the interview they wouldnt schedule it. The case is usually reviewed prior to the interview to make sure there are no serious problems as long as all docs are correct. She wont be at the window for very long and will be surprised at how easy it really is.

[Tegeras 5]

Well she got her blood tested today and the only antibodies (or whatever you call them) they found were for Hepatitis B so she only got her first round of vaccinations done for the other 9 items on the list. The doctor refused to administer all of them at once because he feared too many at once would be bad and told her to come back in a month for the second set. Though I think my wife made up the month part due to her fear of needles! probably more like a couple of weeks at most.