TRAVEL HEALTH ADVICE (click for general advice)

SINGAPORE

• Confirm primary courses and boosters are up to date as recommended in the vaccination schedule - including vaccines given to special groups because of risk exposure or complications (e.g. hepatitis B for health care workers, influenza and pneumococcal vaccines for the elderly).
• Vaccines sometimes advised: hepatitis A; hepatitis B.
• (Rabies not normally present, but post exposure treatment should be readily available).
• Yellow fever certificate required if over 1 year old and entering from or within the preceding 6 days, having been in transit through an area with risk of yellow fever transmission.

Notes on the diseases mentioned above

• Hepatitis A is spread through contaminated food and water. Typhoid causes septicaemia and hepatitis A causes liver inflammation and jaundice. In risk areas you should be immunised if good hygiene is impossible.
• Hepatitis B is spread through infected blood, contaminated needles and sexual intercourse, It affects the liver, causes jaundice and occasionally liver failure. Vaccination is recommended for those at occupational risk (e.g. health care workers), for long stays or frequent travel to medium and high risk areas, for those more likely to be exposed such as children (from cuts and scratches) and those who may need surgical procedures.
• Rabies is spread through bites or licks on broken skin from an infected animal. It is always fatal. Vaccination is advised for those going to risk areas that will be remote from a reliable source of vaccine. Even when pre-exposure vaccines have been received urgent medical advice should be sought after any animal bite.

Malaria - See Map

• Malaria - See Map is not normally present in Singapore unless the illness was contracted abroad. However some visitors to Singapore go on short trips to neighbouring Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam where Malaria - See Map is a risk - see Indonesia