Vaccines For Thais In Korat During 1970-80

[bina]

finally making a health file for hubby; making it easier for our socialized medicine system to deal with him.... since he has never used his insurance while a migrant worker, he had no past records filed.; he was sick a few months ago, but it was almost impossible to get him treated because he has no records (allergies, etc)... so i had to get him to be 'sick' twice more to visit a doctor to get blood tests run, ventolin prescription etc... what we are still missing is his vaccines.

here, after army, no one gets anything, not even tetanus, unless u request it if u work in agriculture or with animals. so the doc wanted to know what vacs thais got back then in the 1970's in the up country muu baans. any guesses (it would be thru the anima clinics? or shcool programs maybe?).... we need to know since whooping cough is making a comeback here, as is polio, mumps and measles. also, is there a way to know if he has ever had malaria? should i get him screened for bilharzia? here, the only people that go to tropical disease docs are the trekkers, and only if they have fallen sick within a year or so of return. most docs here recognize israeli/western oriented diseases, not tropical and especially not up country thai stuff.

furtunately the doc is up on checking for diabetes among ethnic types that are on hunting/gathering type diets /rice like his issan family eat , then coming here and eating tons of bread, ltos of meat, junk food and cakes... (yemenites fall in that category also)

i unfurtunately forgot to askabout TB which is making a comeback here due to various african immigrant groups; HIV et al we are testing for, (a bit late, 6 yrs, but as she pointed out, its never too late to start treatments...)....

anything i missed? he is nto a cooperative patient at the best of times, so i literally had to make a date with him for getting blood tests (and i had mine finally done after four years of the kibbutz clinic running after me)...

bina

israel

[Sheryl]

Back then, routine child immunizations were BCG, polio and DPT (diptheria-pertussis-tetanus).

He will not have had Hep A or B vaccines as they were not then available, but very likely he had at least Hep A as a child and thus has antibodies. May or may not have had Hep B (can be transmitted from mother to child) and if so, could be a chronic carrier which has implications for his health as well as yours.

There is no way to tell if he had malaria in the past but it is unlikely (and he'd remember it). No need to tests for bilharzia or anything else exotic. But a Hepatitis Panel (Hep Antibodies, Hep B antibodies and surface antigen) would be wise.