A common question people ask us when they learn we’re moving to Ecuador is, “What shots do you need to get?” The simple answer is, none. There are no required vaccinations for traveling to Ecuador. The CDC website has a nifty guide to vaccinations for travelers. The biggest risk posed to us seems to be from eating and drinking contaminated food or water, which could lead to hepatitis A or the more exotic sounding, typhoid. After doing a little research, including some advice from my “almost-doctor” sister, Justin and I decided to get the Hep A vaccine and we made appointments at the Health Services for Travelers Office. I’ll state for the record that I’m suspicious of vaccines. I mean, how do we really know what’s in those shots? But at Caitlin’s urging and the threat of permanent liver damage, I went for it.
The cost
for the vaccine was about $50 and the nurse charges a $30 “service fee” for
pushing a three inch plastic handle towards us and injecting our arms full of
disease. . She was really pushing us to get the typhoid vaccine as well, I’m
sure that comes with an additional service fee, but we turned it down. Besides,
it turns out that the typhoid vaccine is only 50-80% effective (Hep A is 99%
effective) and that doesn’t sound too convincing to me.
So now
our bodies are swimming with hepatitis A antibodies and we’re just going to
roll the dice on typhoid.
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