Travel Vaccines & Immunisations

Travel vaccines protect you against infections that are uncommon in Australia but circulate widely elsewhere. They fall into three groups, and the distinction matters because it changes how urgent each one is.

The ones on the national schedule: measles, mumps and rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, polio, chickenpox, influenza. Travel is the most common reason Australians discover a gap in this list. Anyone born from 1966 onwards needs two documented doses of measles vaccine, and a lot of people in that group only ever had one.

Vaccines chosen for your specific trip based on risk: hepatitis A, typhoid, hepatitis B, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, cholera, meningococcal ACWY. Nobody needs all of them. Which ones apply depends on the destination and the trip.

A small number of vaccines are a condition of entry rather than a recommendation. Saudi Arabia requires meningococcal ACWY for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, and some countries ask travellers leaving polio-affected areas for proof of a recent polio dose. Miss one of these and you can be refused boarding or held at the border.

Knox GP is a general practice in Bayswater serving patients across Wantirna, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Ringwood and the wider Knox area. Seeing your own travel doctor close to home has some practical advantages over a dedicated travel clinic in the city.

• Both consultations are bulk billed, so the only cost is the vaccines themselves at the pharmacy
• The pharmacy is next door, not a separate trip across town between appointments
• Your GP already has your history, so the conversation starts with your medications, allergies and conditions rather than a blank form
• Routine catch-up doses and travel-specific vaccines are sorted in the same visit instead of across two providers
• Parking on site, and no train into the CBD for either appointment
• The same practice sees you when you get home, which matters if you come back with a fever or a gut bug
• Pathology on site, so any blood tests the GP orders before you travel are done in the same building

There is no single list of immunisations for overseas travel that suits everyone. What follows covers the vaccines travellers from Melbourne ask about most often, and the situations where each one is worth having. Bring your itinerary and we will work through it properly.

Both spread through contaminated food and water, and both are recommended for most travellers heading to South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Central and South America and parts of the Pacific. Hepatitis A vaccine is recommended for travellers aged 1 year and over going to moderately or highly endemic countries. Typhoid vaccine is recommended from age 2 for endemic regions, and a single injection gives around three years of protection. If you are travelling to Bali, India, Vietnam or Thailand, this pair is usually the starting point.

Japanese encephalitis is mosquito-borne and rare in travellers, but severe in the people who get it. Vaccination is recommended if you are spending a month or more in an endemic area of Asia or the Torres Strait during transmission season, and it is worth discussing for shorter trips involving rural areas, rice paddies, pig farming or a lot of time outdoors after dark. Two vaccines are available in Australia, one as a single dose and one as a two-dose course, so the timing of your trip affects which one suits. Since 2022 the virus has also been detected in parts of mainland Australia, so this is no longer only a travel question.

Polio has not been eliminated everywhere. Adults who finished their childhood course should have one booster dose before visiting a polio-affected country, and that booster is a once-in-a-lifetime dose for most people. A handful of countries also ask travellers who have stayed more than four weeks for proof of a polio dose given in the previous twelve months before they let you leave. Worth checking if Afghanistan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea or parts of central and east Africa are on your route.

No, and this is the question we get asked most. Two malaria vaccines exist, and they are a real advance, but they are approved for young children living in high-transmission parts of Africa as part of national childhood programs. Neither is recommended or available for travellers, and neither gives the level of protection a traveller needs.

Malaria prevention for travellers is antimalarial tablets plus keeping mosquitoes off you. The tablets are prescription-only, the right choice depends on where you are going and how long for, and most regimens have to start before you arrive and continue after you leave. That is a conversation to have at the same appointment as your vaccines, not something to sort out at the airport.

Rabies vaccination before you go is worth it if you will be somewhere with limited medical care, if you are cycling or trekking, working with animals, or travelling with young children who are less likely to report a bite or a lick. It does not remove the need for treatment after an exposure, but it buys you time. Hepatitis B is recommended for longer or repeat trips to Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Cholera vaccine is not needed by most travellers. Meningococcal ACWY is recommended for the meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa and required for Hajj and Umrah.