Finding Travel Vaccinations in China
I try my best to keep up on vaccinations while in China, but ran into problems when I needed some travel vaccinations. This happened when I started planning a trip to India.
Getting travel vaccinations for India is a challenge
First, I needed to know which vaccines I needed. A quick visit to the CDC’s Health Information for Travelers to India got me started on the right path. I was fine on all my routine vaccinations, and had already gotten Hepatitis A and B taken care of just after moving to China. I needed vaccinations for rabies, typhoid (eeek!), and I was also getting a little overdue for a tetanus booster. On top of this, I needed to select something to keep me safe from malaria.
This should be easy. My lovely wife could just make quick call the local Bureau of Sharp Needles Jabbed into Uncomfortable Places. This should make the locations to get the proper travel vaccinations easy to find. Sadly, this proved to not be the case. Typhoid vaccines are held in reserve in case of an outbreak. So, if I went to India, then caught typhoid, came back to China, and somehow accidentally infected a few people, then I’d be able to get hold of the vaccine, travel back in time, and get immunized before getting sick. 
Since my time machine was in the shop for a tune up, I decided to figure out a better way to the typhoid vaccine now instead of later. The next one we asked about was tetanus. Since that’s a standard item in the US for most minor puncture wounds, I thought it should be very easy to find in China. Both the Sharp Needles Bureau as well as several local hospitals seemed to wonder why anyone who hadn’t just been punctured by rusty nail would want to get an injection for it. (Edward Jenner and Jonas Salk were both spinning in their graves during these conversations.)
The Great Wall of Vaccination Ignorance wasn’t done with me. The Sharp Needle people claimed that all hospitals would have rabies vaccinations. The good news is that every hospital called said that they did have the vaccines for rabies. The bad news is that one hospital employee after the other also believed there was no such thing as vaccinations to prevent rabies before getting bitten. Funny, I could easily get those for every dog or cat I’ve ever owned (and annual rabies vaccines for pets are available in China). I really wanted to get vaccinated against rabies for 2 reasons. First rabies is much more common in India than China. Second, I regularly pet random dogs or cats whenever possible. (I am a professional lunatic. 
Do NOT try this at home – or when traveling.) We decided to head down to the local vaccination hospital to see if it was possible to locate someone who possessed a clue about pre-exposure vaccines.
Dongguan Hospital Vaccination Clinic
The bad news was that we didn’t make much progress on any of the travel vaccinations there. That hospital specialized in childhood vaccinations, but they did have one special room for adults.
Is an inculation similar to a vaccination?
The good news is that Chinese medicine at some point realized that flu shots were indeed supposed to be taken to prevent influenza before exposure instead of to treat it, and the hospital had them available. Our most recent trip to the US didn’t leave us with time to get flu shots, so my wife and I decided to go ahead and get jabbed. Happily, we survived the experience with only one noticeable side-effect – we each had to pay about 75 RMB for the vaccination.
Help! There’s a masked woman stabbing me
My lovely wife suffering the agony of her flu vaccination
A few more phone calls eventually revealed that the Liaobu Hospital employed some doctors who got the concept of pre-exposure rabies vaccinations. The next morning, we jumped in a taxi and headed east so I could get the double-dose given for the first of 3 rounds of rabies vaccinations.
Liaobu Hospital – Offering excellent vaccinations for rabies
When we arrived, we ended up in the emergency room, along with a few other rabies vaccine seekers who had been slightly bitten or scratched by dogs or cats. The first doctor started up with the whole “there’s no pre-exposure vaccination option“. 
As I was contemplating the irony of attempting to beat some sense into someone in a place where I wouldn’t need to call for a doctor afterward, the shining light of medical knowledge suddenly burst through the window of the next room. A senior doctor leaned in and explained that the rabies vaccination instruction sheet clearly stated that there indeed is a pre-exposure option for those who want it. 
Ten minutes later, I was having a nurse inject one vial full of vaccine into each arm. It cost about 300 RMB for the series of shots. I was given dire warnings to avoid eating spicy foods and against engaging in any form of violent exercise for a full month after each round of the vaccination series. After careful contemplation, I filed that advice with other useful facts, such as the claims of there not being a pre-exposure rabies vaccination option for humans.
I did notice a side effect which I hadn’t been warned about. Once vaccinated, on the next full moon, I didn’t feel any urge to howl at the moon, rip off my shirt, and run around biting people. Happily, this wore off by the time of the next full moon (Aaarroooooo!!!).
Aaaaahhhhh!!!! I’m losing my werewolf abilities 🙁
Prevents Rabies – Only partially effective against lycanthropy
The remaining 2 rounds were scheduled for 1 week later and then 2 weeks after that. This gave me time to take a break from travel vaccinations and look into the malaria prevention options. Of course, avoiding mosquitoes completely is the optimal choice, but the temperatures in India, even in December, don’t make hanging out in heavy clothing very appealing (and I still haven’t found a temperature controlled space suit to fit my budget). So, I took another trip to the CDC’s website and visited their Choosing a Drug to Prevent Malaria page to refresh my long forgotten knowledge of what to take to avoid getting infected.
There were quite a few choices. I excluded anything mentioning possible drug-resistant strains. I wasn’t sure of the full itinerary yet, so didn’t know what mutant forms of malaria I might end up being exposed to. Then I compared all the pros and cons and settled on Doxycycline. The main drawback is that if you use it, you’ll be stuck having to remember to take a pill each day and continue to do this for 28 days after getting back. The amazing advantage – it only cost 16 RMB for 100 pills.
This still left typhoid and tetanus on my list. Normally, I try to use local resources when possible. I do this in cooking too. However, sometimes, one has to bite the bullet and pay a little more at the foreign foods store to get something you just can’t find anywhere else in China. The medical equivalent of this in Dongguan is called Global Doctor, and they had a wide assortment of travel vaccinations available. Both typhoid and tetanus vaccines were on the menu (550 RMB for typhoid and 200 RMB for tetanus). I got slightly lost on the way there, so stepped into One for the Road to ask for directions. A very nice gentleman took a quick break from his drink to walk me over within sight of the Global Doctor clinic. 
Global Doctor, Dongguan
The staff at Global Doctor were quite nice. My lovely wife was busy elsewhere, so it was great that the nurses all had a sufficient grasp of English (since my skill at speaking and understanding Mandarin is somewhere between very useless and mostly useless). The pretty nurses were more than happy to stab me with sharp needles. Amazingly, no one at Global Doctor warned me to avoid spicy foods and violent exercise for a month after any vaccination. 
At last, done getting travel vaccinations (for this trip)
One other good thing happened at Global Doctor. The doctor discussed the travel vaccinations I was taking. He agreed with my choices for vaccinations and Doxycycline. He also suggested one more item for my potential medical needs. In the event I ended up with a full scale case of food poisoning, he set me up with 3 days worth of Cipro. At the time, I thought it might be overkill (I’ve only ever had one very minor food-related issue in my entire time in China), but being paranoid, I got the pills and took them with me on the trip, just in case.
If you want to see more about my trip to India, click here.
UPDATE: The last time I checked, Global Doctor in Dongguan was no longer carrying any vaccines. 
I’m not sure if it was a supply chain interruption or due to some change of regulations. If I learn more, I’ll post an additional update.
