Vaccinations for South Africa Travel

Do you need vaccinations for South Africa travel? There are many things to know before visiting South Africa for the first time like the best holiday destinations in South Africa or how to see South Africa in 7 days.

It’s important to take precautions especially for safety in South Africa but one thing most people trn.d to forget is the importance of getting vaccinations for South Africa travel. Are vaccines mandatory for visiting South Africa? which vaccines are recommended? This blog answers all your questions.

Vaccines can prevent infectious diseases for infants, children, and adults. Without vaccines, you are at risk of serious illness and suffering from pain, disability and even death from diseases such as measles and whooping cough.

Common causes of death in South Africa (diseases)

According to Statistics South Africa, the most common causes of death in South Africa are:

• Ill-defined and unknown causes of mortality – 57 159 (12‚5%)
• Other external causes of accidental injury (includes drowning‚ smoke inhalation‚ poisoning) – 34 096 (7‚5%)
• Tuberculosis – 29 513 (6‚5%)
• Diabetes – 25 255 (5‚5%)
• Other forms of heart disease (includes pericarditis‚ endocarditis‚ pulmonary valve disorders‚ cardiac arrest‚ atrial fibrillation) – 23 515 (5‚2%)
• Cerebrovascular diseases – 23 137 (5‚1%)
• HIV – 21 830 (4‚8%)
• Hypertensive diseases – 19 960 (4‚4%)
• Influenza and pneumonia – 19 638 (4‚3%)
• Other viral diseases (includes cytomegaloviral disease‚ mumps‚ infectious mononucleosis‚ viral conjunctivitis) – 16 577 (3‚6%)

Overall, the cause of death in South Africa is largely due to what is categorized as natural causes, which account for 88.8% of all deaths. The other 11.2% of deaths were non-natural causes.

Vaccinations for South Africa

Malaria in South Africa

Ebola in South Africa

Ebola virus disease (EVD) (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and non-human primates.

The disease is caused by the Ebola virus infection. Human-to-human transmission of the virus occurs following when blood or other infectious bodily fluids (may include stool, urine, saliva, and semen) of an infected person come into contact with broken skin or mucous membranes including the nose, eyes, and mouth of a contact.

Infection can also occur following direct contact with environments that are contaminated with an Ebola patient’s blood or body fluids, such as soiled clothing, bed linen, or used needles.

After two outbreaks (near the Ebola River, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan) occurred almost simultaneously, the disease was first identified in 1976. Since then, sporadic outbreaks have occurred in the DRC, Uganda, South Sudan, Congo, and Gabon, resulting in less than 2,500 confirmed cases with death rates of 50-90% of Ebola patients died from 1976-2013.

The largest EVD epidemic occurred in West Africa from December 2013 to June 2016, with over 28,616 suspected cases and 11,310 deaths reported to the World Health Organization mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

There were no reported cases of Ebola in South Africa, but EVD may be imported to South Africa by travelers returning from EVD affected countries. If you want to get vaccinated, you should ask your doctor for the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) vaccination.

Yellow Fever in South Africa

Yellow fever virus (YFV) is a mosquito-borne viral disease that infection can range from mild to severe. The YFV is a single-stranded RNA virus in the Flaviviridae family. The virus is transmitted by a bite of an infected mosquito vector.

According to the World Health Organization, Yellow Fever is prevalent in Africa and South America and there are some countries where a yellow fever certificate is a prerequisite for entry. These countries are Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), The Democratic Republic of the Congo, French Guiana, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Uganda.

To avoid the global spread of the disease Countries defend themselves against the threat of importation or further transmission of the yellow fever virus by setting traveler entry requirements for yellow fever vaccination.

Some mild symptoms of yellow fever include Fever, nausea, vomiting, headache, stomach, and muscle pain are mild signs of yellow fever. Hepatitis and hemorrhagic fever are more severe symptoms.

While yellow fever is not present throughout the globe, yellow fever vaccination is important because of the virus’s high mortality rate.

In addition to receiving a yellow fever vaccine, travelers should be sure to use appropriate mosquito repellents or netting. Yellow Fever is not a required vaccination for South Africa travel but a disease to be aware of when traveling to different African countries.

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A, also known as infectious hepatitis, is a viral disease of the liver. The hepatitis A virus is relatively stable in the environment and is easily spread to close contacts who are not immune.

All people are at risk of hepatitis A infection. Hepatitis A can spread among young children in daycare because many are in nappies and cannot wash their own hands. These children are usually asymptomatic, and so prevention is difficult. People who share the same household and sexual partners of persons with hepatitis A are at risk of becoming infected. Persons who develop Hepatitis A or persons who are vaccinated are protected for life against subsequent infections.

Hepatitis A virus is found in the stools (feces) of persons with active disease. It is spread by the ‘faeco-oral’ route – for example – when people don’t wash their hands after using the toilet or changing nappies or soiled sheets, and then touch their mouths, prepare food for others, or touch others with their contaminated hands.

It may also be spread by contaminated food or water. A person with hepatitis A is most contagious 2 weeks before illness starts until 1 week after the onset of jaundice. Amongst household contacts of persons with hepatitis A, only 20-50% of contacts develop hepatitis A.

There is no treatment for the disease and most people do not need any, as the condition resolves on its own.

Hepatitis B