VNS SERVICES > TRAVEL & OTHER IMMUNIZATIONS
Travel Immunizations
Visiting Nurse Service established their Travel Immunization Program in 2006 at the encouragement of other organizations. The Travel Immunization Program fills a need in the community by providing travel immunizations at an affordable cost to individuals and companies.
More than 61 million U.S. residents are expected to travel internationally. Yet a large majority of them will not do the one thing that could mean the difference between a successful trip and a disaster: get vaccinated against diseases prevalent in the countries they’ll be visiting.
Studies have shown that while individuals believed that vaccines were effective for disease prevention, few are vaccinated for their journey.
It is important to plan ahead. Some vaccinations are given in a 2 to 3 shot series over a period of time. It takes 14 to 30 days from the time of the immunization for some antibody production to take place. Certain vaccines for different diseases should be administered 4 weeks apart.
VNS provides:
- Pre-travel Health Counseling & Recommendations with no consultation fee
- Comprehensive Travax Traveler Health Report, which include daily updates about activities of concern in other countries
- Yellow Fever Certification Site
- Malaria Information
- Education Packet
- Tuberculin Testing
Vaccines offered are:
- Flu
- FluMist
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Japanese Encephalitis
- Measles-Mumps-Rubella
- Meningitis
- Pneumonia
- Polio
- Rabies
- Tetanus-Diphtheria
- Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis
- Tuberculin Testing
- Twinrix (Hepatitis A & B)
- Typhoid & Typhoid Oral
- Varicella/ Chickenpox
- Yellow Fever
In addition to the above vaccines we are happy to provide two new vaccines:
- HPV (Human Papillomavirus) for individuals, ages 11 to 26
- Shingles (Zoster) for individuals 60 years and above
Shingles is a painful skin rash, often with blisters. It is also called Herpes Zoster. The rash usually appears on one side of the face or body and lasts from 2 to 4 weeks. Its main symptom is pain, which can be quite severe. Other symptoms can include fever, headache, chills and upset stomach. You can’t catch shingles from another person with shingles. However, a person who has never had chickenpox (or chickenpox vaccine) could get chickenpox from someone with shingles. Very rarely, a shingles infection can lead to pneumonia, blindness, brain inflammation (encephalitis) or death.
Vaccinations are provided at our office, 4701 N. Keystone Ave., Indianapolis. VNS offers to go to approved locations, without additional charge, when 7 or more individuals each receive 2 or more vaccinations.
For more information on our program you may call our Immunization Office at (317) 722-8299, Ext. 1104, or email TravelProgram@vnsi.org.
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