Is Yellow Fever Vaccination Required for Entry to Caribbean Countries?

I am on an upcoming cruise in Brazil, cruising the Amazon River, which then goes to several Caribbean Islands. While a Yellow Fever vaccination is not required for Brazil, I have read in several places that proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination is required in order to enter French Guiana, Grenada, Barbados, and Dominica since I am traveling from Brazil. Have any of you been on a cruise from the Amazon/Brazil to any of these islands? If so, were you asked to show proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination in order to get off the ship? Were you able to leave the ship even without the Yellow Fever vaccination? I had a Yellow Fever vaccination more than ten years ago. The latest protocol suggests that once is enough, but noted that some countries have not updated their entry requirements. I appreciate any knowledge you can share.

Yes, we have been and no, we weren't.

Never a problem.

BTW, the vaccination is no longer recommended for seniors who have never had one before.

French Guiana (Devils Island) used to require the shot after being in Brazil as recently as three years ago. We are on a cruise starting in Miami and stopping in Devil's Island in 2017 and the vaccination is still required per the itinerary on the web. You need to check with Oceania as any answer here is strictly speculation and the only official requirement comes from the cruise line.

Actually the official answer comes from the country you are visiting. You can check required vaccinations by going to those sites

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Yes, we have been and no, we weren't.

Never a problem.

BTW, the vaccination is no longer recommended for seniors who have never had one before.

We are on the Amazon cruise in December this year as well. Did your cruises go from the Amazon to French Guiana as well as other Caribbean islands and was this recently?

Thanks.

I would check each Country you will be visiting @

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country.html

if in doubt call the Embassy/Consulate for the correct information

or get a wavier from your Doctor

Yes, we have been and no, we weren't.

Never a problem.

BTW, the vaccination is no longer recommended for seniors who have never had one before.

You're right that some doctors do not recommend the vaccine for people over 60 who have never received it in the past. But that doesn't mean that those seniors are safe to travel to areas where yellow fever is endemic.

The reason for not having the vaccine is that there is a very slight increase in serious reactions among people over 60. There is a very high chance for anyone, regardless of age, who is bitten by a mosquito carrying yellow fever to suffer serious illness or death. That is why seniors who do not receive the vaccine are discouraged from traveling to areas where yellow fever is present.

I am over 65, and today met with a travel specialist who is a diplomate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene and the International Society of Travel Medicine. His strong recommendation for my upcoming trip to the Amazon and French Guiana is that I should have the yellow fever vaccine. I did so.

We are on the Amazon cruise in December this year as well. Did your cruises go from the Amazon to French Guiana as well as other Caribbean islands and was this recently?

 

Thanks.

Yes, we were down the Amazon to Manaus and then back up, stopping in French Guiana on the way back to Miami. November 2015.

French Guiana (Devils Island) used to require the shot after being in Brazil as recently as three years ago. We are on a cruise starting in Miami and stopping in Devil's Island in 2017 and the vaccination is still required per the itinerary on the web. You need to check with Oceania as any answer here is strictly speculation and the only official requirement comes from the cruise line.

We did Rio to Miami in 2014, no one on board or on land asked or cared about the yellow fever immunization. The pre cruise documents said it was highly recommended. We talked to many people who decided not to take it and there were no issues. We stopped in French Guiana.

Thank you all for your replies. They are very helpful. I am checking with the consulates, but I haven't found anything helpful online. I will call them and see what they say. I will follow-up on your suggestions, too. I have had the yellow fever vaccination, but many years ago. I just read some recent studies that say once is enough. Therefore, I do not want to get another one if it is not necessary.

Any travel clinic will advise you of the requirements for vaccinations when travelling out of the country. They meet with you, discuss your current health, give you the necessary innoculations and then give you the appropriate records to take with you. FYI, they are not cheap:)

It does not matter what the country recommends, the travel clinic or the lords of medicine state -- it is what the cruise line requires. Your Oceania invoice should clearly state what is needed. It is right below the Visa info.

For 2014 --our invoice clearly stated a WHO Vaccination Card with a Yellow Fever stamp was required for embarkation. It also stated that for those that cannot take the vaccine -- a Doctors letter needs to be provided. However it stated that Brazil officials have the right not to accept this letter.

If you are coming from a Yellow fever area (which the Amazon is) certain countries may require a Yellow Fever certificate.

My Oceania invoice says under Health Requirements that "Yellow Fever inoculation and Malaria prophylaxis are strongly recommended for all travelers as the itinerary includes a call to French Guiana. Guests are encouraged to consult both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site and most importantly, their physician to make the best decision based on their overall health." There is no mandatory requirement for any vaccinations stated. This is on the invoice I received after I made the final payment. The prior invoice only said that "Yellow Fever vaccination is strongly recommended." I called the French embassy in Washington, D.C. and the woman I spoke with said she didn't have information on yellow fever requirements. She gave me the phone number for the Los Angeles consulate. I called it, but only got an array of voice mail options. After many tries, I could not get to a live person. So no help there.

My Oceania invoice says under Health Requirements that "Yellow Fever inoculation and Malaria prophylaxis are strongly recommended for all travelers as the itinerary includes a call to French Guiana. Guests are encouraged to consult both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site and most importantly, their physician to make the best decision based on their overall health." There is no mandatory requirement for any vaccinations stated. This is on the invoice I received after I made the final payment. The prior invoice only said that "Yellow Fever vaccination is strongly recommended." I called the French embassy in Washington, D.C. and the woman I spoke with said she didn't have information on yellow fever requirements. She gave me the phone number for the Los Angeles consulate. I called it, but only got an array of voice mail options. After many tries, I could not get to a live person. So no help there.

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/french-guiana The above link might be of interest although the typical government giberish from the CDC. Says the CDC highly recommends the Yellow Fever shot while it also says the shot is required for entry to French Guiana. Very strange that Oceania doesn't require the shot with it being required for entry by the country. Good luck that they don't change and not allow you on board without the shot. We got ours several years ago without any bad effects go good to go next year.

We disembarked our Regent cruise early in Barbados. We had to show proof of our Yellow Fever vaccinations before we were allowed to disembark as it was a requirement by Barbados. We had been to areas in Brazil where there was a risk of Yellow Fever.

I don't remember if we had to show proof of the Yellow Fever vaccination before we were allowed to board.

I join those who recommend you visit with a travel health doctor to determine what is best for you - vaccination or a letter that exempts you from vaccination.

Copied below is a quote from Wikipedia on Yellow Fever. It is the most succinct description I have found.

"Yellow fever begins after an incubation period of three to six days.[10] Most cases only cause a mild infection with fever, headache, chills, back pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting.[11] In these cases, the infection lasts only three to four days.

In 15 percent of cases, however, people enter a second, toxic phase of the disease with recurring fever, this time accompanied by jaundice due to liver damage, as well as abdominal pain.[12] Bleeding in the mouth, the eyes, and the gastrointestinal tract will cause vomit containing blood, hence the Spanish name for yellow fever, vomito negro ("black vomit").[13] There may also be kidney failure, hiccups, and delirium.[14][15]

The toxic phase is fatal in about 20 to 50 percent of cases, making the overall fatality rate for the disease about 3.0 to 7.5 percent.[16][17] However, the fatality rate of those with the toxic phase of the disease may exceed 50%.[18]"

Yellow Fever is a really nasty disease. You should get the immunization unless you have medical reasons not to. In that case you should stay out of endemic yellow fever areas.

No Yellow Fever vaccinations are required in the Caribbean, as far as I know, except for the circumstances described above.

We are having our vaccinations soon as recommended by our health care provider for a trip from Rio to Miami. The yellow fever vaccination is highly recommended (e.g., "mandatory") for a cruise from Brazil INTO the Caribbean.

Yellow Fever, unfortunately, is pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa again and may start moving north into the Carbbean.

We did a Princess cruise in 2008 that went to Barbados after visiting Devil's Island. A yellow fever card was mandatory to board the ship. We were told that Barbados was the country that was demanding the vaccination and that no shot meant no cruise. Barbados was requiring the shot because of the previous port call at Devil's Island. Also, the shot had to be administered at least ten days prior to the cruise.

We went to a local doctor that was a travel specialist and got the shots. He said that the shot was good for ten years. He also advised us of more vaccination concerns that pertained to our cruise.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

My Oceania invoice says under Health Requirements that "Yellow Fever inoculation and Malaria prophylaxis are strongly recommended for all travelers as the itinerary includes a call to French Guiana. Guests are encouraged to consult both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site and most importantly, their physician to make the best decision based on their overall health." There is no mandatory requirement for any vaccinations stated. This is on the invoice I received after I made the final payment. The prior invoice only said that "Yellow Fever vaccination is strongly recommended." I called the French embassy in Washington, D.C. and the woman I spoke with said she didn't have information on yellow fever requirements. She gave me the phone number for the Los Angeles consulate. I called it, but only got an array of voice mail options. After many tries, I could not get to a live person. So no help there.

We did the Amazon, Rio to Miami, trip March 2014 and the pre cruise documents also said YF vaccine is "strongly recommended". No one asked at any time if passengers had received it. We stopped in French Guiana and Barbados on the way to Miami and no one cared.

Many passengers on board had not taken the vaccine.

I don't want to look both ways before crossing a busy intersection.

I want to text and read emails while I drive.

I don't want to take a simple yellow fever shot before entering areas where it's known to exist!

All sound about the same to me! What me worry! :rolleyes:

I'm all for being cautious, medically speaking, but I'm reminded of Stans' parents first trip to Turkey in 2004.

They were of a generation for whom inoculations in preparation for even a European trip had always been a rite of passage, so they were quite docile, and even anxious to do "the right thing" prior to our Cruise which visited Ephesus and concluded in Istanbul.

We made our doctors appointments as a group, and the parents had a dinner party on the night before we were to be injected. Their physician had thoughtfully forwarded the inoculation recommendations, so that we would go in, knowing just what to expect.

None of us ever recalled laughing as hard as we did that night.

Fully 30% of the questions dealt with how much time we might be spending at local farms, livestock auctions or abattoir. Our proximity to stray animals in general loomed large in the protocols and ( I SWEAR that this is true!!!) several paragraphs discussed the likelihood of our becoming......er........romantic with the animals. :eek:

To summarize, people travel to other countries for a myriad of reasons; do enough homework to insure that you are not being inoculated against a risk that you would never in a million years be exposed to.

Jim&Stan;

When going to the Amazon, what do you think one's chances of encountering mosquitos are? Can you avoid them, when going ashore, like you can avoid visiting farms or making contact with sheep in Turkey?

We got our final Hep A shots yesterday, before our upcoming 2 week trip to Egypt. We asked about the Amazon and Yellow fever shots while at the clinic. They strongly encouraged both the Yellow Fever vaccination, and taking the malaria pills prior to departure. We are both over 65, but the head Specialist said "If you're to frail for the Yellow Fever vaccination, you're probably to frail to take the cruise."

Jim&Stan;

 

When going to the Amazon, what do you think one's chances of encountering mosquitos are? Can you avoid them, when going ashore, like you can avoid visiting farms or making contact with sheep in Turkey?

 

We got our final Hep A shots yesterday, before our upcoming 2 week trip to Egypt. We asked about the Amazon and Yellow fever shots while at the clinic. They strongly encouraged both the Yellow Fever vaccination, and taking the malaria pills prior to departure. We are both over 65, but the head Specialist said "If you're to frail for the Yellow Fever vaccination, you're probably to frail to take the cruise."

I'm with Pinotlover.

I really do not understand the American reluctance to get vaccinations. Perhaps we live in too sheltered a society. Most of us have never seen these diseases or known anyone who has. I have and they are awful.

These diseases are endemic (means prevalent) in many parts of the world. A single mosquito bite can infect you. As I mentioned earlier, yellow fever is a really awful and deadly disease. Same for Malaria. Many of us on this board are senior citizens and we should remember that the mortality rate for these diseases is much higher among the elderly and the very young. Not worth the risk not to vaccinate. And as pinotlover's doctor states, if you are too frail to get the vaccine you probably should not be traveling.

I don't want to look both ways before crossing a busy intersection.

I want to text and read emails while I drive.

I don't want to take a simple yellow fever shot before entering areas where it's known to exist!

 

All sound about the same to me! What me worry! :rolleyes:

If only the issue were that easy. Yes or no, black or white. good or bad. But, unfortunately, it is not. There are medical reasons to seriously consider whether the yellow fever vaccination is helpful or detrimental to your health. Some people should not take the vaccine. I had a yellow fever vaccine, but more than ten years ago. So do I need to take it again? According to the above poster, yes. I have spoken with doctors who tell me that according to the CDC it is now considered sufficient to have one dosage in a lifetime and no booster is necessary.

I checked the CDC website and it says "In 2014, the World Health Assembly (of WHO) adopted the recommendation to remove the 10-year booster dose requirement from the IHR as of June 2016. Once this change is instituted, a completed International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis will be valid for the lifetime of the vaccinee." Also, there have been no active yellow fever incidents in Brazil or the Caribbean this year. I researched this and found that there have been no reported cases of yellow fever in Brazil this year. in fact, there have been no reported cases in Brazil since 2008, according to the World Health Organization.

As Jim (Jim&Stan) stated so effectively, "do enough homework to insure that you are not being inoculated against a risk that you would never in a million years be exposed to." That is what I did before I posted my question. My original post was only asking "Have any of you been on a cruise from the Amazon/Brazil to any of these islands? If so, were you asked to show proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination in order to get off the ship? Were you able to leave the ship even without the Yellow Fever vaccination?" I was not debating the merits of the vaccine.

So I had my last Yellow Fever vaccine before being sent to Vietnam, think that lifetime shot is still good! Am I willing to risk the chances versus taking a relatively cheap shot? NO! I probably did enough quinine pills, for malaria, to sink a battle ship! Think I'm still immune?

Have you ever seen someone with Yellow Fever? It's not pretty! If one is too frail to take the shot, they are too frail to take the trip.