Lax vaccination requirements are no excuse for travelers to endanger hometowns.
News Sentinel
Wed, Aug. 30, 2006

For the second time in two years, travelers have come back home to Indiana and created public-health problems. How often does this need to happen before the United States requires its citizens to have a full slate of vaccinations before they receive passports? How many times do innocent neighbors need to risk serious illnesses before people who travel beyond the U.S. and Canada gather a clue and immunize themselves against every vaccine-preventable disease in circulation?

In 2005, an Indiana teenager went to Romania without vaccinations, contracted measles and, after she returned, spread them to more than 30 people in her community. Tracking down this girl’s contacts and containing the outbreak cost at least $160,000. Three of the measles patients were seriously ill and had to be hospitalized. One of them spent six days on a ventilator.

Beginning last week, Pizza Hut and the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health have coordinated a quick, effective response to the news that an employee at Pizza Hut, 5735 Coventry Lane, was diagnosed with hepatitis A. More than 2,600 people have been vaccinated against the disease.

The Pizza Hut worker who carried the disease recently returned from a mission trip to Mexico, but it isn’t clear that he contracted this rarely fatal variety of the disease there. However, it’s worth noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that anyone traveling to Mexico or Central America be vaccinated against hepatitis A.

Now that we’ve had two public-health mobilizations triggered by people who’ve been on mission trips, it would be a miserable side effect if they made churches and individuals look at mission trips suspiciously. Karen Jones, associate professor of ministry and missions at Huntington University, says she’s never seen reliable estimates of how many American Christians go on mission trips annually. But the impulse to travel, to evangelize and to provide practical help is deeply rooted in this country’s churches, from the most liberal to the most conservative.

Those trips provide some of the best privately planned and funded international aid this country can offer. Americans learn about different countries and see true need close at hand. Meanwhile, the help mission trips provide shows America’s best face to the rest of the world.

But obviously some travelers don’t think through the implications of taking their lightly defended immune systems outside the country. Drop in on the CDC’s Web site at www.cdc.gov to see how detailed and varied the federal recommendations for travelers’ vaccinations are. For many countries, the advice might be summarized as, “Make sure you’ve taken one of everything your doctor’s office can provide.”

That seems like a sensible approach, so sensible in fact that providing proof of vaccination or immunity for a wide spectrum of communicable diseases ought to be a precondition for obtaining a passport. As it stands, the government offers only recommendations. And other countries maintain few vaccination requirements for visitors to cross their borders. (Many tropical countries do require immunization against yellow fever before they admit travelers.)

But realistically, that’s not going to happen soon. Some religious sects oppose vaccination. Some people exaggerate the risks of vaccines or perpetuate debunked tales about vaccines’ dangers. Those are more than enough interest groups to impede the slow progress of a sensible idea through the channels of federal bureaucracy.

In the meantime, people who travel outside the U.S. or who help lead travel or mission groups outside the country need to rely on their own good sense to keep themselves and their American neighbors healthy.

It’s not that complicated. Study travelers’ advice provided by the CDC or other reputable institutions. And of course, get your shots.