Kenya Health Requirements & Innoculation

For those visitors arriving by air from Australia, New Zealand and Europe and America, Kenya has no required inoculations. Entering overland, you may well be required to show vaccination certificates for both yellow fever and cholera by the local authorities.

If you fly on an airline that stops en route in Africa, you should have the yellow fever shot before you leave and preferably get a cholera vaccination exemption stamp in case some border official thinks that you need a cholera vaccination stamp to enter the country. You may otherwise be subjected to them at the airport.

It is important to plan ahead and organize your vaccination shots at least six weeks before you leave your country. A yellow fever certificate only becomes valid ten days after you've had the shots. You should also start taking malaria tablets before departure and don't forget to continue taking them for the prescribed time after you return to your home country.

Tetanus and polio boosters are necessary and doctors usually recommend typhoid jabs (these can take you out of action for a couple of days). For hepatitis A , Havrix is now commonly prescribed, and needs a booster after six months to knock up your immunity to ten years. The much cheaper gamma-globulin (or immunoglobulin) shots are only effective for a few months.

Most travelers to East Africa are at risk of contracting malaria. Malaria is a serious, but preventable infection that can be fatal. Malaria is rare in Nairobi and the highlands but prevalent in the hot and humid low altitude areas around the Coast, Lake Victoria and the Savannah. Prevent this deadly disease by seeing your doctor for a prescription antimalarial drug and by protecting yourself against mosquito bites.

To protect yourself against mosquito bites:-

• Wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and hats.
• Pay attention to mosquito protection between dusk and dawn. This is the time when mosquitoes are most active whose bite transmits malaria is active.
• Use insect repellent to areas where your skin is exposed.

Health and Travel Tips.

• Always wash your hands with soap and water.
• It is advisable to drink boiled or bottled water,carbonated drinks . Please avoid tap water.
• Take your malaria prevention tablets before, during, and after travel if you are traveling to a malaria infested area
• Eat thoroughly cooked food or fruits and vegetables you have peeled yourself.
• Don’t try to touch wild animals to avoid getting serious bites and diseases especially rabies