Injections
Since we will be shortly heading off into the wilds of eastern Europe and Asia, it is necessary that we get innoculated against a range of terrifying diseases. To this end we had an appointment this morning at the LUMC in Leiden, which is apparently well known among cyclists as the place to go for this sort of thing.
The doctor who we spoke to began by asking where exactly we were going, and this is when things became a wee bit complicated. Because we will travel through so many countries and climates, there ends up being quite a lot of things that we could fall victim to. What makes the whole thing irritating as much as frightening is that it is of course not possible to do it all in one visit, or even in a couple; we need to be injected a total of four times over the course of a month and a half to receive adequate protection. Here is what is on the menu:
- Typhoid fever
- Tetanus
- Polio
- Diptheria
- Rabies – unfortunately the vaccine doesn’t actually prevent this but gives you a bit more time to get to the hospital if attacked by a mad dog, etc.
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Frühsommer-Meningoenzephalitis (FSME) – Never heard of this one before, but it’s a horrible virus that you can get from ticks and which will cause your brain to swell up and possibly kill you.
So after all that I guess you are as good as invincible. Of course, it’s important to put things into perspective – you can get innoculated against everything under the sun, but it won’t help much if you break your leg or get run over by a car. Life is full of risks, whether at home inside or on the road in the middle of China.
