Travel vaccinations:

It’s very nice to go travelling, and many of you seem to agree, judging by the size of the response to two queries last time about travel vaccines. One reader had been recommended a cocktail of travel vaccines before she heads off to the Far East, but she’s not keen on being a pincushion. Then there was the reader who is looking for an effective antimalarial that don’t cost the fortune he was charged for two Chinese herbal tablets last time. One reader recommends homeopathic remedies, which can either be prescribed by a homeopath or obtained from a homeopathic pharmacy such as Helios or Ainsworth’s. Helios can also supply a homeopathic ‘first aid’ kit. One reader, who appropriately describes her service as ‘the traveling homeopath’, says it’s important to allow at least a week between taking each remedy. Chinese medicine needn’t be as expensive as our reader reported last time. A Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner charges his clients £10 for a 150 ml tincture of Qing Hao (artemisia annua), which is enough for one person for two weeks’ protection. Another inexpensive Chinese remedy is Ching Hao, which can be made into a herbal tea, or it can be bought as a ready-made tea at good Chinese herbalists. Artemisin, which is the chemical version of Ching Hao, can also help if you have caught malaria. You could also try eating a lot of garlic, which works as an antimalarial because the smell from your skin seems to frighten off the mosquitoes. Thiamine (B1), like garlic, also excretes through the skin, and is a good natural antibiotic and antiparasitic. Any liver herb, such as dandelion, St Mary’s thistle, or globe artichoke, can protect against hepatitis. One reader makes up his own travel concoction, which consists of garlic, dandelion, thyme, slippery elm and echinacea. Another concoction, which acts as a natural antimalarial, is made up of capsules of cloves powder, wormwood and black walnut tincture, as suggested by Herbs of Grace. One seasoned travel also travels with immune-boosting vitamins, and citricidal and colloidal silver, which between them, can ‘zap about anything’. The best anti-bite remedy is Alfresco, according to our travelling reader, which does contain petro-chemicals, but is still better than taking pills that contain Deet. The homeopathic remedy Malaria 30 has worked well for our reader for 25 years of travel. As well as homeopathic remedies, one reader also found the Ayurvedic tablets, Maha Sudarshan, helpful as an antimalarial. If you do decide to have vaccines, typhoid and hepatitis B are probably the only two essential ones. For the rest, have an antibody test, and you’ll probably find you still have immunity from vaccinations you were given as a child.