Tag Archives: Health

Vaccines for travel to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and the Amazon

I was lucky enough to travel recently for the first time to Brazil and the Amazon. After negotiating the complex travel visa process, I learned from the Brazilian Consulate that I also need a vaccine for yellow fever, which is a virus endemic to most of South American and Africa, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Do I have to get vaccinated for yellow fever?

Without the yellow fever vaccine, I could have been denied entry into Brazil, according to the Brazilian Consulate. However, vaccination is not a requirement to enter any country, according to the CDC, so denied entry was unlikely, especially to modern cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paolo. Further, I received my tourist Visa from the Brazilian Consulate without proof of vaccination.

In short, no, a vaccine is not required to enter Rio, Sao Paolo or other major cities in Brazil. However, it is recommended.

Map of yellow fever zone in South America

What are the risks of skipping the vaccine?

The risk of actually contracting the yellow fever virus is lower in South American than Africa, according to the CDC. However, unvaccinated travelers risk developing the horrible skin disease marked by pussy yellow, blistering boils spread by mosquito bites in infected areas. Somewhere between 10% to 90% of US travelers don’t get the vaccine. All of the cases of yellow fever in the US are brought back by these people. I didn’t want to be one of them.

Since we planned to visit the Amazon, vaccination seemed like a sensible preventive measure. So I made some calls to local health care clinics to set an appointment. Of the five major health care clinics on Maui, only two offer international travel vaccines: Kaiser Permanente and Dr. Chad Meyer. Kaiser only treats members. Fortunately, Dr. Meyer sees everyone else.

You might have to call around to find a doctor that specializes in travel medicine in order to get vaccinated for yellow fever.

What else do I need to know about the yellow fever vaccine?

Here’s a summary of what my doctor told me about the vaccine for the yellow fever virus:

  • Vaccine against the yellow fever virus must be given 3 weeks before travel to affected areas in order to be effective.
  • The vaccine is a single injection of 0.5 mL of reconstituted virus. In other words, it’s a live virus vaccine.
  • Side effects could include fever, pain, swelling and yellow fever. (Yuck!) But immunity, once developed, is lifelong.(Yay!)
Yellow fever virus transmitted through mosquitos producing pussy boils

Dr. Meyer also recommended that I receive vaccinations for additional diserases:

The total cost for these vaccines, plus the office visit to review traveler’s health tips, cost about $500 cash.

Have you been vaccinated? If so, please reply and tell us about your experience with the vaccine, yellow fever or travel to endemic areas.

Hawaii resources for international travel vaccines:

  • Kaiser Permanente, Travel Medicine Department — (808) 243-6000
  • Dr. Chad Meyer, Maui Travel Medicine — (808) 573-5088
  • O’ahu has more resources than Maui, including Kaiser, Queen’s and Straub clinics.
  • On Kauai and the Big Island, area hospital clinics have the vaccines.

Hawaii healthy for children

Hawaii’s children are among the nation’s healthiest, according to the most recent data published by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). Areas where Hawaii’s children exceed the national level include having been breastfed, oral health, vigorous daily activity and positive social skills. More of Hawaii’s children are insured (96.2%), compared to Mainland children (90.9%), which may explain why they receive more preventative care.

Children in Hawaii fall slightly below national levels for days of school missed (5.7 in the las year, compared to 5.8 for Mainland children) and watch slightly more TV (55.9% watch TV one or more hours a day, versus 54.4%).

Still, children are highly valued in Hawaii’s culture, and it shows in these latest health data.

How I lost 30 pounds in 12 weeks

I lost twelve pounds in six weeks. I didn’t mean to, but it happened when I radically changed my diet. You probably don’t want the illness that initiated this change, but you may find interesting the weight loss results I have achieved.

My liver swelled up with a rare kind of hepatitis in early November, about 2 months after I returned from the Amazon, and I could no longer digest just about everything normal in the American diet. No alcohol, no wheat, no corn, no sugar, no fruit, no raw food, no cold food, no fried food.

It takes a lot of will power and a very upset stomach to say “no” to so many foods. So it may be tempting to refer to this as the “No diet” diet. Or, worse, the hepatitis diet.But perhaps reverting to a simple diet is a better description.

Japanese breakfast of rice, miso, seaweed, daikon and vegetables improved my health and helped me lose weight

What I have been able to eat and enjoy resembles a diet eaten by Japanese farmers: rice, cooked vegetables, miso, broths, small amounts of fish and dark meat and tea. The healing power of this simple Japanese-style way of eating is reknown.

Japanese people suffer less heart disease and obesity than Americans, and even those that move to Hawaii — halfway between Japan and the Mainland US — live longer if they maintain a Japanese lifestyle, according to the landmark Honolulu Heart Program, a long-term study of Japanese men in Hawaii. Acculturation was a primary study parameter, and researchers found that Japanese men who adopted the Western diet and sedentary lifestyle most fully were more likely to develop coronary heart disease, as well as 11 other risk factors (Am J Epidemiol, 1982). Conversely, eating a more Japanese diet and maintaining physical activity lowered men’s risk for heart disease, overweight and other risk factors.

In my time of illness, a simple Japanese diet was all my liver could tolerate. Following it helped to restore my health and, in the process, I have lost weight. After years of indulging in rich western foods, I definitely carried some extra pounds and was in no danger of becoming too skinny. The hardest part of the diet was battling intense cravings for all the foods I was withdrawing from within the first two weeks, foods such as greasy meat, spices, bread, and sugar.

This simple diet has also eliminated nearly all of symptoms from seasonal allergies to pollen, dust and molds. For years I have taken over-the counter and prescription medications for runny, drippy nose that comes with seasonal allergies. It’s the classic western answer to any health problem: take a pill.

But recovering from hepatitis or any other liver problem is all about not taking and eliminating the unhealthful. With an injured liver, you can’t take anything. So removing all I could not tolerate was my only choice. This includes wheat and corn, and doing so has worked wonders for my immune system.

Two weeks ago I took a small taste of a corn tortilla and within about 30 minutes, my nose started to run. Same when I tried to reintroduce wheat. Wheat also slows my digestion, causing almost instant feelings of nausea. So both corn and wheat are out for good, but removing them also means removing everything that eats them, including all factory farmed chicken, pork and beef.

I already don’t like ranch dressing, Coke or catchup. Now I’m eliminating wheat, corn and factory-farmed animal flesh from my diet all because I don’t want to take pills and I want to feel healthy. I also exercise every day and enjoy taking my dogs on long walks. Depending on your politics, I am suspiciously unAmerican or all about freedom. Either way, I am 12 pounds lighter and allergy free.