(English) Dengue vaccine for travelers/foreigners in Thailand: Should I get it?

4 comments to (English) Dengue vaccine for travelers/foreigners in Thailand: Should I get it?

• Jim Moss

  ตุลาคม 6, 2017 at 08:04 · Reply

  I contacted Dengue while working in India in about 1996. I was told that I had the 2 worst strains of the 4. I am now living in Cambodia and will be living in Asia for at least the next 5 to 10 years. I am 67 years old. Would it be in my best interest to get the vaccine?

  • TravM Dr

    ตุลาคม 6, 2017 at 16:04 · Reply

    Right now dengue vaccine is registered to be use in people aged 9-45 years only. So in your case, mosquito bite prevention is likely to be your best option.

• Ivan

  มีนาคม 30, 2017 at 00:22 · Reply

  Question: European, have lived in the tropics seven years. However I have got dengue twice (confirmed both times by blood test) already. Concerned about worse reaction if I get it a third time. Would you recommend vaccination in this case?

  • TravM Dr

    มีนาคม 31, 2017 at 22:07 · Reply

    Thanks for the question. However it is very difficult for us to give a specific recommendation to someone via Internet. Since there are many factors to consider such as age, duration of stay in the tropics and how long will someone stay in the tropics, previous dengue infection, etc. Not only that, one key factor that our doctor have to access is the risk perception and risk tolerance of each individual.

    Such as if we know that the chance that someone will develop dengue infection is 1% per year (this is just a sample number). What do you think? Is this 1% risk is high or low? Is it acceptable or not? Should we get three shots of dengue vaccine in order to reduce the risk to 0.35%? I think we could imagine that, everyone looks at the same number differently and may have different perspectives about risk and benefit of vaccine (which is called risk perception). So formal counselling/discussion with a doctor is needed.