Besides the "routine" immunizations how many open water swimmers have taken extra shots to protect themselves?
In a thread from 2007 some people said they had gotten Hepatitis A and/or Hepatitis B shots. I looked around the CDC website and saw where Typhoid and Rabies shots might be a good idea.
Is this overkill? What are other people doing?
I swim in places that receive discharge from sewage treatment plants (SF Bay and other parts of the Pacific Ocean, Lake Michigan). So I got a Hep A vaccine, on my then-doctor's advice. Hep A is transmitted by contaminated food or water; and I sometimes do drink the venue despite my best efforts; and sewage treatment plants sometimes do have problems.
Typhoid is also transmitted by food or water, but no doctor ever has suggested that vaccine to me for OW swimming. It is important for "third world" travel. An oral tpyhoid vaccine exists that my doctor says confers better immunity than the injectable vaccine, and I took it before my last trip to sub-Saharan Africa.
No doctor has ever suggested to me that swimming increases my risk of exposure to Hep B or rabies.
I swim in places that receive discharge from sewage treatment plants (SF Bay and other parts of the Pacific Ocean, Lake Michigan). So I got a Hep A vaccine, on my then-doctor's advice. Hep A is transmitted by contaminated food or water; and I sometimes do drink the venue despite my best efforts; and sewage treatment plants sometimes do have problems.
Typhoid is also transmitted by food or water, but no doctor ever has suggested that vaccine to me for OW swimming. It is important for "third world" travel. An oral tpyhoid vaccine exists that my doctor says confers better immunity than the injectable vaccine, and I took it before my last trip to sub-Saharan Africa.
No doctor has ever suggested to me that swimming increases my risk of exposure to Hep B or rabies.
