Yellow fever is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes. It is caused by a virus carried by mosquitoes. You can catch this disease if you are bitten by a mosquito infected with this virus.
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| List of countrieds for which the Indian Government has mandated yellow fever Vaccine |
This disease is common in South America and in sub-Saharan Africa.
Anyone can get yellow fever, but the elderly have a higher risk of severe infection.
If a person is bitten by an infected mosquito, symptoms usually develop 3 - 6 days later.
Prevention is the mantra, so you need to get the vaccine before you travel to the countries with the risk of yellow fever (refer pic above)
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| Signpost at the Cross Road |
I am sharing my experience here, which is a snapshot in time. Encourage you to check and verify for changes. This article is not an advisory.
Mandatory stuff first
1. This vaccine is a must to go to countries listed in the picture alongside
2. You need to carry your ticket and passport
3. Needs to be taken 10 days in advance of travel
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| Airport Health Organisation |
It’s a time consuming process, takes nearly half a day. It is important you reach early since the number of injections is capped at 70 numbers. A unique twist is that these vaccines come in vials of 5 so if the numbers at the end exceed a multiple of 5 they need to return again.
Long hours of waiting can be a challenge so diabetics ensure that you carry food and water. People who can’t stand for a long time, please bring along you seating arrangements. Waiting can be a challenge in case you need to handle small kids.
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| Administration Procedure |
One has to go in quite early, it is better to reach there between 7 and 8 am (registration closes at 11:30, you can take a chance till then). Once you reach there, you or the others need to do one very important activity and that is to ensure that people write their names, as they arrive (it is not a registration). This is because people cannot maintain a queue for a very long time. The wait period outside the gate is from the time you arrive to about 09:30. Chaiwala will come it at around 08:30 and sell you chai around 09:00.
Around 09:15 a guard arrives and asks a que to be formed based on the name list. Then people are marched inside and asked to site on a small parapet wall within the compound wall of the building. It mostly would get filled up by ladies and the men need to stand.
At 10:00 am you will be led in to the main building for the registration which will close at 11:30, wherein you will be made to sit in the order of the names listed on the sheet. Then each one is called with his ticket and given a token number. Post this exercise everybody is asked to go and come back at 11:30. This is when you can go one stair up and buy your Bajji Pav, it was quite alright. A hot cup of chai post the spicy hot bajji pav was good.
Then you come back at 11:30 and then sit according to the token number in the ground floor. At about 12:00 the first batch of people are ushered in to the first floor. Once there you will be given the yellow card (not sure if they wanted to give a visual que to the yellow fever through the card), which needs to be filled up by you. And then each one is called as per the serial number wherein you walk to the counter and give them your yellow card, passport and Rs 300/-. After this people are sent in batches of 5 for the injection. Once you get injected, you can take your passport and signed copy of the yellow card (they also put in a batch number of the vaccine). Now the process is complete, you watch may be reading 13:00 hrs by now. Never the less one task out of the way for the next 10 years.
