moved from greece to africa forums

wizard

I think that if you're travelling directly from an area where infection is a risk (Gambia is on the WHO list) then you're required to provide a yellow fever vaccination certificate. However, you're not travelling directly from one to the other. You could check out to be sure with the National Travel Health Network and Centre
http://www.nathnac.org/travel/contact.htm

If your GP surgery recommends vaccination though I would have it, having read what the disease consists of!
http://www.who.int/topics/yellow_fever/en/index.html

When we went to Gambia we had the Yellow Fever jab, and carried our Yellow Fever certificate in our passport attached with rubber bands, they actually checked our certificate before entry.

Angie.

no you dont need the yellow fever to travel to gambia.

also you will have no trouble at all getting into greece or other countries after traveling to gambia.

melc,

Yellow fever vaccination isn't mandatory for travelling to Gambia, but is a recommendation. It cost £45-50. It's not mandatory when travelling to Kenya, just a recommendation but I had it done in January just to be on the safe side and prevent problems when travelling to countries in the future.

Darren

Yellow fever, wow this subject is a minefield of information and miss information!!
I am travelling to Harare Zimbabwe in April. Heathrow via Joberg to Harare and returning the opposite way, Harare-Joberg-Heathrow.

Now the first leg Heathrow to Joberg should not be a problem, yellow fever certificate not required but the return leg Harare to Joberg is the problem. Do I need a yellow fever certificate from Harare to south Africa???
South African airways cannot seem to maKe up their minds, it depends on who you speak to. I have had a airline official saying yes, their medical dept says no, does anyone on here no the definitive answer??????
Merged with existing topic. Dazbo HT Mod

Both Zimbabwe and South Africa require travellers arriving from countries where there is a risk of Yellow Fever to produce a certificate of vaccination before being allowed entry but as neither country is listed as being a Yellow Fever risk area you shouldn't need one for travel between them in either direction.

http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/policy/2011/draft_yellowfever.pdf

http://www.who.int/ith/chapters/ith2011annexs.pdf

You will, however, do so if your trip takes you into neighbouring Zambia at all because both countries require certificates for travellers entering from Zambia.

SM

Thank`s for the Info

The problem seems to be with South African airways Staff, they are giving me conflicting information and I wouldn't like to turn up at the airport and find I cannot board due to lack of certification! I believe this has happened before with this particular airline.

In that case I think that the only definitive answer is 'Get it' unless there are medical contra-indications that make it inadvisable for you to have the vaccination. It sounds as if this will all depend on the attitude and knowledge of the particular members of staff you encounter on the day.

And I suppose that a lot could also depend on whether you are just a transit passenger who never leaves airside at Johannesburg airport (in which case you won't be 'entering' South Africa anyway) or whether you have a stopover on either the outbound or inbound journeys and will be going through the South African border/immigration processing. So it might be owrth checking with the airport what the position is re passengers who never come landside when transiting there.

SM

I leaning towards getting it although 4 travelling @£50+ each is a bit steep! We are "in Transit" passengers with a total stay at the airport in Joberg of 1 hour going and 3 hours coming back. we will never leave the airport.

Shaker,

I would agree with SMa, just get it then you're covered. If you travel in the future in that region, chances are you'll need it sometime in the future so it's not wasted money. Better safe than sorry. I had it 3 years ago, it wasn't all that bad!

Darren

OK it's going to cost approx £200 for the jabs for you all but compared to the total cost of your trip is it worth taking the risk of getting turned back and wasting all that money? I too have had the vaccination for Yellow Fever and while I was glad that my GP advised me to have it late afternoon on a day when I could just go home and not have to do anything, I would agree with Darren - it wasn't all that bad despite having number of other jabs at the same time - and certainly didn't live up to the horror stories one hears.

SM

Plus they do last for 10 years so hopefully you'll get your money out of it on another trip.

Thanks for all the replies and just to update the situation
I contacted South African Airways Travel Clinic by email and they have confirmed I don't need the Yellow fever Jab
I shall be taking a copy of this email with me

Off to the Doctors today to get the jabs I do need, all free by the way

My son recently went on a trip to Kenya, and he did get the Yellow Fever vaccination.

However, a word of warning for other travellers...
when he went through passport control/immigration at Mombasa airport, he was asked to hand over the Yellow Fever certificate, which he did.
Of course it was not returned to him.
I asked what was happening with other passengers' documents, and he said "he couldn't see".......

Luckily he wasn't travelling to any other countries on that trip.
We have found out that he can be issued with a new certificate, where he got the vaccination, but it will cost £12.

Has anyone else had this sort of experience?
Was he "supposed" to hand over some money to get it back?

Be warned......

Acorncup,

Was he told why they kept the certificate? That certificate belongs to the person who was vaccinated as proof of having it so it should not have been retained by anyone and handed back to the passenger once shown, and certainly shouldn't be charged for the return of a certificate that isn't required to be retained and doesn't belong to them. I've been through MBA and didn't experience anything like that. We just showed our vaccination certificate and it was returned with our passports.

Darren

Thanks dazbo, I don't really know how it happened, and I don't want to quiz him too much. He had flown overnight and landed early so I expect he was a bit befuddled. It was the first time he has travelled so far on his own (well we have never been to Africa as a family either) and since it is the only thing that went wrong on his trip, it isn't much of a disaster, compared with all the mishaps that might have happened.....

The £12 is to be paid to the clinic where he got the vaccination, for issuing a replacement certificate.

I just thought I would warn others to hang on to their certificates
and wondered if it was a genuine accident or whether there is a black market in forged yellow fever certficates

PS would it be OK to staple it to the passport or are you not allowed to attach things like that? (he is off to South Africa with his college later on)

Acorncup wrote:

PS would it be OK to staple it to the passport or are you not allowed to attach things like that?

I would use a paperclip rather than a staple so it doesn't mark the passport or certificate as it's bound to get turn out as some stage.

Darren

Good idea, thanks