[timnat]

My husband, 3 year old son and I are moving to Hong Kong from the UK in October. Our doctor has suggested the following vaccinations; hepatitis A, typhoid, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, Japanese encephalitis and rabies.

We are planning to live in the Sai Kung district and would like to know what other expats have done particularly regarding the Japanese encephalitis and rabies vaccines.

[hello_there]

Listen to your doc's recommendations, or get recommendations from another doc. We made sure all of the above were up to date, except rabies. Hepatitis and mosquito-borne illness like encephalitis are not uncommon being so close to China...

[PDLM]

Personally I haven't had any that I didn't have in the UK.

Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis are very rare in HK.

( http://www.chp.gov.hk/notifiable1.as...pid=26&ppid=10 )

There has been only one case of rabies in humans in the last 10 years (and that was in 1999).

JE was only made a notifiable disease in 2004, and since then there have been 7 cases (though none in the last 2 years).

There is more leprosy in Hong Kong than JE, for example, and substantially more malaria, but I don't know of anyone taking anti-malarial prophylaxis here.

[hello_there]

JE may be rarely reported in HK, but there were more than 30,000 reported cases in Asia last year. It can also be a deadly disease, expecially for kids and the elderly. The vaccination seems relatively low risk.

[PDLM]

But the same is true of malaria with orders of magnitude more risk. Do you suggest malaria prophylaxis?

[hello_there]

Originally Posted by PDLM

But the same is true of malaria with orders of magnitude more risk. Do you suggest malaria prophylaxis?

Before I moved here I asked my doc about all these diseases. The vaccination against JE is simple, and a one time thing, so why not.
If there was an increase in incidence of malaria and if I lived somewhere that had a lot of mosquitos or spent a lot of time outside I would consider taking a malaria prophylaxis if advised by a physician. I've taken it when travelling in certain parts of SE Asia.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by hello_there

The vaccination seems relatively low risk.

A Danish study (Plesner et al., 1996) has found a risk of 1 in 50,000-75,000 of adverse neurological effects from JE vaccination. Given that the risk of a person in HK getting JE is something like 1 in 5,000,000 per year (and that the mortality rate amongst non-infants is really quite low, and once you've had it you are immune for life, unlike the vaccination, which needs boosting every 2-3 years), it seems to me that the risk of the vaccination outweighs the risk of the disease by a significant distance.

(See this UK Gov document for more details: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/...dh_4137919.pdf )

What data do you have to support your assertion that the "vaccination seems relatively low risk"? To me it seems that the vaccination is at least 100 times riskier than the risk of getting JE in Hong Kong.

[geminijets]

What I received info on was:
Polio,tetanus,diptheria,bcj,hep a&b,typhoid.
If you can get them done well before your arrival that way they are free on the NHS,I left it too late so had to pay for most of them due to lack of appointements available.Also hep b is a 3 dose vaccine with a week inbetwen each.BCJ,You will need a test first then advice if you should have it done.Rabies I was told should not be concern unless you find yourself to be in an area full of mongrels and more than 24hrs away from medical help.JE was mentioned but not recommneded as the possibility of infection is very very low.
If you plan on backpacking all over Asia then the full monty is the recommdation.
Hope that helps,

[semUK]

Originally Posted by timnat

My husband, 3 year old son and I are moving to Hong Kong from the UK in October. Our doctor has suggested the following vaccinations; hepatitis A, typhoid, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, Japanese encephalitis and rabies.

We are planning to live in the Sai Kung district and would like to know what other expats have done particularly regarding the Japanese encephalitis and rabies vaccines.

I am also moving to HK with my young children and have been told they do not need any vaccinations as long as they are up-to-date with their normal vaccinations but I did need a few myself but not the JE and rabies as I beleive you only need them if living in certain areas.