Calgary Travel Vaccinations
  Calgary Travel Vaccinations
Calgary Travel Clinic | Our Travel Clinic | Travel Consultations | Travel Vaccines | Appointments |  
Calgary Travel Vaccinations

Calgary Travel Vaccinations and Immunizations
Medisys is one of the only travel clinics to provide the complete range of travel vaccinations in Calgary. Certified by Health Canada to administer the Yellow Fever vaccine, we also provide vaccinations to protect against hepatitis A and B, Japanese encephalitis, cholera, typhoid fever, rabies and many more—including a new oral vaccination against travellers’ diarrhea. All travel vaccinations are given by qualified nurses specializing in travel medicine.

Although some vaccines are effective at the last minute, others require multiple doses before becoming effective; therefore, it is highly recommended that you book your appointment 4 to 5 weeks before traveling.

What is a Travel Vaccination or Immunization?
A vaccination (immunization) is the prevention or treatment of an infectious disease by injecting a weakened or dead micro-organism (bacterium or virus) into the body. Some vaccines can be given as shots and others as drops or capsules to be swallowed. Your body respond to the weakened bacteria or virus by producing antibodies. As a result, the antibodies protect you if and when you are exposed to the real disease. However, most antibodies only remain effective for a limited amount of time–anywhere from five to ten years; that is why you need to receive “booster” shots every so often to replenish or “upgrade” your antibodies. For the flu vaccine, the type of flu virus that goes around changes slightly every year, necessitating a change in the vaccine to protect against it, which is why you typically need a flu vaccine every year.

Commercial vaccines undergo rigorous testing before being put on the market; they are completely safe for most people, and the risks are much smaller than the danger posed by the disease itself.

Why do I need Travel Vaccinations?
Vaccinations are administered in order to help us better preserve our good health. They may be provided as a preventive measure against a potential disease or in order to protect us against a disease to which we have recently been exposed. As children, we receive several vaccinations on specific schedules to prevent diseases that are dangerous to us in youth; most are combined vaccines such as measles-mumps-rubella or diphteria-pertussis- tetanus-polio-haemophilus influenza.

As international travellers, we may encounter infectious risks not present in our everyday environment, thus new vaccinations could be needed. Diseases such as hepatitis A can be a greater risk abroad, and ailments like Japanese encephalitis may be completely foreign to our home geography. In fact, for travellers, hepatitis A is the most common vaccine- preventable disease.

Although it is rare[1], some people may have adverse or allergic reactions to travel vaccinations; vaccines are generally contraindicated in pregnant women–that is, the risk posed to the individual by the vaccine is greater than what it is intended to protect against. Before receiving any vaccination, it is highly recommended that you have a consultation with a health professional with expertise in immunization.

Make no mistake: vaccination is good. There is no reason to risk suffering from a disease if there is a safe, easy way to prevent yourself from getting it.

Book Your Travel Vaccinations in Calgary

 

[1] In Canada, this type of reaction has occurred less than once in every 1 million doses of vaccine, and there are effective treatments for this condition. (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/im/vs-sv/vs-faq_e.html)

We offer the following
travel health vaccinations:

We are a certified
Yellow Fever Clinic

Calgary Travel Clinic | Our Travel Clinic | Travel Consultations | Travel Vaccines | Appointments |