Vaccinations

Below were the suggested vaccinations (and yes, we got all of them!) from the travel clinic, for both Rwanda and Tanzania.  Since we were going to both countries, I didn't track the requirements by one country versus another.  (Obviously, these requirements can change over time.)

We had most of these already, from previous travels.  The one shot we really didn't have was the Yellow Fever shot.  We had to make special appointments to get this shot, and only certain clinics offer it.  What was annoying is that we had to do a "travel advisory/consultation" - which cost $150 per person.  Basically, even though we knew we had to get the yellow fever shot, and we had read all the details online - we still had to pay for the "consultation", during which the doctor read off a description of the vaccine.  I checked with a lot of clinics in the area, but unfortunately, there was no way around it.  We had to pay the $300 ($150/person).

At the time of travel, this warning was out for Yellow Fever.  Basically, you need to have proof that you've had the vaccination before they let you in the country.

DUE TO CURRENT OUTBREAK OF YELLOW FEVER, THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH IN TANZANIA AND ZANZIBAR IS TAKING PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES AND HAS REQUESTED EVERYONE TO SHOW A VALID YELLOW FEVER VACCINATION CERTIFICATE AT ALL PORTS OF ENTRY. PLEASE REMEMBER TO CARRY YOUR YELLOW FEVER VACCINATION CARDS WHEN ENTERING TANZANIA FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND ALSO WHEN TRAVELING TO ZANZIBAR ALL PORTS OF DEMBARKATIONS IN TANZANIA.

Here's the list of vaccinations we got.  Links are to CDC information pages:

For malaria, you have a choice of quite a few different medicines.  Five are recommended on the CDC Malaria page.  Our physician recommended Malarone, and we went with his recommendation.  Malarone is slightly more expensive than Mefloquine, but you only take it for 1-2 days before traveling, and then while you are there.  

One common side effect is getting an upset stomach.  Our physician recommended that we cut each pill in half, and take half in the morning, half at night - and to take it with food.  NOTE: The malarone pills we picked up didn't have those "cut marks" on it, which is often an indicator you can cut the pills in half, and someone on our trip pointed this out as a matter for concern.  Nonetheless, we really trust our family physician.  We've been patients for quite a while, and he's excellent - so we cut the pills in half, before we went on the trip.  (btw, if you trust ehow.com, you can see that ehow actually suggests crushing the tablets...)