A few days ago we echoed a story that said WHO recommended vaccinating and vaccinating our children from measles if we were going to travel to Europe. It is a logical measure that we should all take without traveling (measles and other diseases can also be taken in Spain, of course) and that takes more importance if we are going to do it because of the risk of contagion when we are in another country (that infect us) and the risk of contagion when we return (that we spread).
For this same reason It is necessary to take into account the vaccines that are needed or recommended in each country and go to an international health or vaccination center to be administered or put to our children.
National trips
If we are going to travel in Spain, despite the fact that the vaccination schedules between communities do not just agree, we must not be very careful with the subject of vaccines (beyond the care you have where you live). As much I would observe the age at which triple viral is administered to assess whether it is necessary to give it to some of our children. In some communities it is already set at 12 months (in Catalonia years ago and in Madrid it starts to be done now, for example) and in others it is still administered at 15 months.
Taking into account the measles outbreaks that are occurring in the country and throughout Europe, the ideal is to put it as soon as possible, that is, at 12 months.
Travel in Europe
If we are going to travel to a European country we can find ourselves in the same situation as in Spain, depending on the country, or the need or recommendation to administer a vaccine. For example, if we travel to France or Germany it is not necessary to get any extra vaccine, but if we travel to Russia it is recommended for example to administer the hepatitis A vaccine, which in Spain is not usually given to babies (yes to children) or even vaccines such as Central European Encephalitis, Japanese Encephalitis or Typhoid Fever.
Even a country like the United Kingdom vaccinates babies at risk of tuberculosis, which is not done in Spain (but it is not necessary if we are going to travel there, if our babies are not at risk). However, if we are going to travel to Ukraine, for example, it might be interesting to administer it, because there they put it on newborns and children 7 and 14 years old.
The most advisable in any case is look at the vaccination calendar of the European country to which we are going to travel and assess if we are missing any of the vaccines or if by age our children should take any of the vaccines mentioned. On the website of the Spanish Association of Vaccination There is a section in which we can select any of the European countries and where we can see the schedules of individual vaccines to assess if we are missing any or if any of our children should be vaccinated: Vaccines from Europe.
International travel
In case of leaving Europe the need to vaccinate will depend again on the country to which we travel. In Cuba, for example, we should vaccinate our children with hepatitis A and it would be advisable to do so for typhoid fever. If we traveled to Costa Rica, the rabies vaccine should be added to the recommendations and if we did it to the United States, we would not need to add vaccines to those that already put our children in Spain.
If we travel to Africa, depending on the country, further prevention will be necessary, both in the form of vaccines and in the form of pills or treatment: for Malaria for example there is no vaccine, so you have to take preventive treatment before traveling.
Again The most advisable is to know which vaccines are recommended according to the specific country to which we are going to travel. We can also see this on the website of the Spanish Association of Vaccination: International vaccines.
Where to go
As we said in the entry referring to the necessary documentation to travel we must bring our own and our children's vaccination card to show what vaccines they are wearing.
To get vaccinated for the most common vaccines, which are those that are on the calendars of Spain, we can go to our usual health center. If instead we need to get vaccinated for a vaccine necessary to travel to other countries we must go to international vaccination center. If we want to find the one closest to our house, we can look for it on the website of the Ministry of Health: International Vaccination Centers.
We will continue…
In a few days, to have more information, we will talk about the most important diseases that can affect us in the different countries of the world to know what is the relevance and what the need to get vaccinated.
