Vaccines protect against many different diseases, including:¹

Infants and children receive routine vaccinations from birth. Because it may be difficult to reduce children’s exposure to environmental dangers, it is particularly important to ensure that their routine vaccinations are fully up-to-date.² Adolescents and young adults make up the largest group of travellers and the group most likely to acquire sexually transmitted or other travel-related infections. Travellers are particularly at risk when travelling on a limited budget and using accommodation of poor standard, or when their lifestyle includes risky sexual behaviour and other risks taken under the influence of alcohol or drugs.² Pregnant women can receive certain vaccines to protect both the mother’s health and that of her unborn child. Your healthcare provider will be able to advise on which vaccines are recommended or not during pregnancy.² Elderly. Certain infections such as influenza or COVID-19 are more severe, the older a person gets. It is therefore recommended that the elderly form one of the highest priority groups to receive influenza  vaccination.^2,4 People with comorbidities. Groups at risk of serious complications of influenza, for example, are people with chronic medical problems such as cardiovascular and/or respiratory conditions, immunosuppressive conditions or diabetes mellitus. Annual influenza vaccination is therefore recommended for these groups.²

Vaccines may sometimes cause mild side-effects: local reaction, slight fever and other systemic symptoms may develop as part of the normal immune response.² These reactions generally occur within a day or two of receiving the vaccine.² In addition, certain components of the vaccine (e.g. aluminium or preservatives) occasionally cause reactions.² An anaphylactic reaction following a previous dose of a particular vaccine is a true contraindication to further vaccination with that specific vaccine and a subsequent dose should not be given.² Anaphylaxis, although potentially fatal, can be treated and has no long-term effects.² Serious reactions are rare. Health-care workers who administer vaccines have an obligation to inform recipients of known adverse reactions and the likelihood of their occurrence. However, under certain circumstances, the healthcare provider may assess the risk of a particular disease to be greater than the risk of an adverse reaction following administration of the vaccine and will therefore advise vaccination.²

Read here about pain-free vaccination.

Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to protect against disease. Vaccines work by inducing protective immunity against an infectious agent so that if exposed to a specific infection, your body is able to fight it off.² Routine vaccination (also sometimes called ‘immunisation’) programmes around the world protect children and adults from a number of infectious diseases that previously caused millions of deaths each year.² For travellers, vaccination prevents people from contracting diseases that may be encountered abroad.²

Vaccines can be ‘inactivated’ (the vaccine contains only killed or weakened forms of the disease-causing germ) or ‘live’.^1,2 Combination vaccines provide protection against more than one disease in one injection.²

• Combination vaccines offer important advantages by reducing the number of injections required,² leading to more timely vaccination and better disease control.³

A booster vaccine restores waning immunity after a first vaccine.² Several vaccines that are routinely administered in childhood require one or several booster doses to maintain an effective level of immunity.² Adults often neglect the need for booster vaccinations, particularly if the risk of infection is low. Some adults, particularly elderly people, may either have lost immunity over time or were never vaccinated.² For travellers, it is important to realise that diseases such as diphtheria and polio, which have been eliminated in most countries, may be present in countries frequently visited by travellers. Pre-travel precautions should include booster doses of routine vaccines if the regular schedule has not been followed, or a full course of primary immunisation for people who have never been vaccinated. Inhabitants of areas where vaccine-preventable diseases are endemic who are travelling to non-endemic areas should be adequately vaccinated to prevent introduction/re-introduction of diseases such as polio, yellow fever, measles and rubella.² Example: Yellow fever vaccination is carried out for two different reasons:²

1. to protect the individual in areas where there is a risk of yellow fever virus infection, and
2. to protect vulnerable countries from importation of the yellow fever virus.

Travellers should therefore be vaccinated if they visit a country where there is a risk of exposure to yellow fever.² Example: Vaccination against  meningococcal disease is required by Saudi Arabia for pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina for the hajj or umrah as well as for seasonal workers and people at high risk.² If you are planning to travel and need to find out more on vaccines necessary to travel, ask advice from your healthcare provider.