Getting my Shots

Today I went to Campus Health Services here at UNC for an international travel clinic appointment. The appointment was long (almost 2 hours!) but I got a lot of useful information that was personalized for my destinations. First, we (it was a groups session) were taught about the vaccines we may consider getting depending on where we were planning on going and other health and safety tips; next, a pharmacist came to talk to us more specifically about the different types of medications. We also got a neat folder with prescriptions personalized for out destinations, printed slides off all the information discussed, information on how to purify water, and much more. All the information included in the folder is listed below:

• Trip Kit Checklist (list of first aid items that would be useful abroad)
• Prescriptions (I got antibiotics for traveler's diarrhea and anti-malarials) 
• Slides with in-depth information on the various prescriptions common for travelers, information about vaccines and health and safety tips 
• Water Purification Options
• OTC Travel Medications 
• A Travex Traveler Health Report based on my destinations

After the lecture, I went and got my vaccines. Luckily I only needed Hepatitis A and Typhoid, so my arm isn't in too much pain right now. I'll have to go through all the information we were given at some point; it's very useful, and it's so helpful that it is personalized, but there sure is a lot of it! I'll also have to look into creating a 'Trip Kit' with some first aid supplies I may not have access to while abroad.