Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Rabies Vaccinations in Foreign Countries

After leaving Bangkok, I assumed it would be easy to get subsequent rabies post-exposure vaccinations in Taiwan. Afterall, it's a pretty developed country. It wasn't until I had already gone to the biggest hospital in the area and to the Public Health Center in Pingzhen City, talked to several doctors and nurses, and called the National Center for Disease Control in Taiwan and a travel medicine clinic in Taipei, that I learned: 1) rabies doesn't exist in Taiwan anymore; 2) almost no one even knows how you can get a rabies vaccine in Taiwan (because it doesn't exist anymore); and 3) there is only one hospital where you can get it in all of Northern Taiwan and that is only after registering with the government. What I thought would be a quick trip to a local hospital like the one in Bangkok (I was in and out in about an hour) took literally the whole day yesterday. Who would have guessed that Taiwan would be one of a handful of countries that doesn't have rabies? At least I know where to go for the 3rd vaccine this Friday. In all, I've visited 5 different hospitals in 3 different countries already in the past week. Hopefully, it will be easy to figure out where to get the 4th and last vaccine when I get to Beijing next week. Luckily, rabies is still a problem in China. I think I am going to avoid monkeys for a very long time. No more petting random cats or dogs either, no matter how cute.

Ironically, it was a good thing the monkey bite left a nasty-looking bruise and mark on my shoulder, since no one actually believes it when I first explain to them why I was looking for the rabies vaccine in the first place. In hindsight, the whole experience is sort of funny and it'll definitely make for some funny stories later but figuring out how to navigate foreign health care systems and prevent rabies has been stressful to say the least.

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