Families often request administration of vaccines overseas, due to cheaper costs, despite unknowns regarding supply and quality of vaccines.

The WHO has recently issued a statement confirming falsified Yellow Fever vaccines have been circulating in Bangladesh.  The product is able to be identified by a number of ‘falsified elements on the packaging… as well as other inconsistencies through visual inspection”.  No serious adverse reactions have been identified, the broader distribution of the falsified vaccine is not described.  The full details together with images of the product are available on the WHO alert.

Another reason to have yellow fever vaccine in Australia is to make sure you are optimally protected at the time of arrival. As a live attenuated vaccine, it takes 3-4 weeks for the vaccine to produce protection from this serious disease.