Judi's vaccines

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Today I got the 4 vaccines I needed to have in order to make my trip to Uganda! Unfortunately for Lindsay she will have to have a few more :-S but its worth it! I made it through all 4 shots but my condition rapidly diminished shortly after my yellow fever shot. Thankfully I was able to pull it together enough to get home and I have spent the majority of the day sleeping off the effects of getting my vaccines.

For those of you who are not familiar with some of the vaccines I got today, yellow fever is the most risky. Uganda has a high rate of yellow fever, an acute viral ideas passed to humans through mosquitos. The symptoms of yellow fever are fever (weird), nausea, pain and many of those also associated with jaundice such as yellowing of the skin and eyes. According to the world health organization the yellow fever virus is responsible for 200,000 illnesses and more than 30,000 deaths a year. There is no know treatment for yellow fever and both the WHO and CDC recommend preventative vaccines as the only measure to reeducate the population of transmitting mosquitos. If we were not traveling to a region where yellow fever is prevalent, we would not be receiving the yellow fever vaccination. About 20% of immunized patients will feel flu like symptoms, 1% of immunized patients will cause YEL-AVD (yellow fever vaccine-associated viscertropic disease) which is fatal in 60% of the reported cases. Because yellow fever is highly prevalent in Uganda, yellow fever vaccination is compulsory and vaccination benefits highly outweigh the potential risks associated with the vaccine. With all of this being said the close family and friends will be advised to watch for jaundice type symptoms in both Lindsay and I for 10 days following inoculation. BUT the worst is over :-)

35 days :-)