Anke Zimmermann, BSc, FCAH, Sooke, British Columbia

In April of 2017, I was contacted by the parents of a 19-year-old girl who was planning to spend a year traveling throughout Southeast Asia after high school starting the next September.  This young lady had never been vaccinated in her life.

Both she and her mother were concerned about this and of potentially being exposed to infectious diseases in Asia. They were particularly concerned about measles, as she also had never had a natural case of the measles. She did have natural mumps and whooping cough as a child so the family was not concerned about those infections.

The travel vaccine service had recommended she receive Hepatitis A and B vaccines, a Typhoid vaccine, a combined Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio vaccine, as well as the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. In addition, the service recommended vaccines for rabies and Japanese Encephalitis.

This was obviously quite a long list, and it was not to the liking of either the client or her parents. Instead, they wanted to opt for homeoprophylaxis (HP) to educate the client’s immune system around the diseases for which the vaccines were recommended.

Fortunately, the family had given themselves lots of time to prepare, as it takes several doses of the HP remedies to create the most effective immune system education. We generally give only one remedy at a time so adequate time to do this is important.

We decided to stagger the remedies, giving one disease remedy every two weeks in 200CH potency and sending additional remedies with her on her travels to repeat the series. I also suggested a homeopathic first aid kit to take along and advised her on the use of remedies for food poisoning, insect bites, sunburns and minor injuries and infections.

I am happy to report that the young lady had a successful one-year-long, working travel adventure, which included Bali, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. Remarkably, she never got sick with anything, not even traveler’s diarrhea. Of course, we cannot be sure that was due to the HP, but it at the very least, it provided an increased level of peace of mind for the family.