Health and Immunization :) - Ahem ahem ready to get punctured??? :)

[rashmesh radhakrishnan]

• Health and Immunization :) - Ahem ahem ready to get punctured??? :)

  
  

  Hey friends, this post is about the various issues w.r.t Immunization…… Kindly note, that this post if for general help and the subject tends to change for different Universities.
  

   Step 1 : Go to the Universities Website and download the following

  • Health form
  • Immunization form
  • Health insurance details & its documents required for the same
  • Generally they are in 2 separate forms, but sometimes you might finds all these details in single one too

   

  Step 2 : Generally Health forms deal with the following:

  • Your personal details : Name & address, Height, weight, Eye power, Dental fitness…etc
  • Details of the Physician  : Name & address, Seal and Signature(ON EVERY SIDE of your report)

   

  Step 3 : Immunization form  deal with

  • The vaccines that you have received so far.
  • Date of all the vaccinations
  • Doctor certification/write-up in case you get vaccinated from him/her.

   

  Step 4 : Additional items that you might need :

  • Blood test (for a variety of test including HIV, H1N1)
  • Mantaoux test (Skin test for TB)
  • Chest X-ray (for TB again)
  • A doctors certificate / write-up stating that you are FIT & healthy (With Doc’s Seal and Signature)

   

  Step 5: You need to get the above things done for 2 reasons :

  • First being that you will allowed at the port of entry (depends on the state you are flying to)
  • Second with regards to the health Insurance that you take from the University, although many of the Universities have their own list of tests before they provide you with their insurance, its always safe to have your own reports and fitness letter.

   

  Step 6 : Special Note On Vaccination :

  • Adhere strictly to the specific vaccination requirements given by your University and start early so that you don’t get punctured with all the vaccinations put at the same time- and note each vaccination course has a specific duration.
  • All vaccinations are NOT MANDATORY, you can spot these ones easily, as the University itself would be providing you with 2 options,
  • First Option – will be the option of taking the vaccination and enclosing its details along with the date of immunization
  • Second Option : Where you can declare or choose NOT to take-up the particular vaccination.  In this case you need not enclose anything for it. Eg : Meningitis vaccination (BUT NOTE ONLY VERY FEW VACCINATIONS ARE GIVEN THIS OPTION)
  •  Do NOT take only half the course of any vaccine : Note – Every vaccine has certain no. of doses to be given within a period of time with a specific time gap which your physician recommends, if suppose you are running short of time and you won’t be able to take the entire dosage of a particular vaccine, then please avoid taking the same , AS THE VACCINES MAY NOT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON YOU IF THEY ARE NOT TAKEN AS A FULL DOSAGE FOR A PARTICULAR PERIOD OF TIME THAT WAS SPECIALLY SPECIFIED FOR IT.
  • Try getting your childhood vaccination record from your parents.
  • “MMR” – MEASLES, MUMPS, RUBEOLA -  a common name which is found under the vaccine requirements, please note this vaccine is supposed to be taken before any child turn “3”, so for those of you who are taking this vaccine just for the purpose of filling your immunization record, understand that it would have any effect on buffaloes like us!
  • Vaccines like MMR, BOOSTER dose, POLIO, hepatitis etc were injected even before we cud turn 13 or 13, it is just that we might have missed our vaccination records, so check.
  • An ideal date for filling up the gap in the date section for MMR would be roughly around 18 to 25 months from your Date of birth – please refer your family physician.
  • Hepatitis is yet another vaccines which is of many types like : Hepatitis-A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A & B.
  • Please Note: Hepatitis A & B is simple a new & combined dosage of the individual A and B vaccines, so you need not break you head for that.

   

  Step 7 : EYE CHECK-UP

  • Eye checkup is a must and get your latest eye prescription ( if you are wearing spectacles)
  • Get two sets of extra spectacles/ glasses if you are wearing one already.
  • Some of the health form would have asked you to mention you eye power in a “SCALE of 20”, in that case ask your doc, since Indian standards to denote eye power is based on a “SCALE of 6”, which is entirely different.

   

  Step 8 : DENTAL CHECK-up

  • Dental checkup abroad, is usually very costly, so kindly run thru a quick dental checkup.
  • This might include, scaling, cleaning, polishing(teeth) and a general checkup which might yield a doctor certificate / write-up stating you are “DENTALLY FIT” J

   

  Step 9: BUY MEDICINES

  • Consult your family doc, and get a  list of medicines that you may want to carry for self help.
  • Please get a Doctor’s prescription and Purchase Bill for all those medicines that you buy.
  • Make sure that the expiry date of all the medicines you buy are for quite some time long, since you may have to stay over abroad for minimum of 6 months at-least.

   

  Step 10 : Health Insurance

  • Check whether your University’s Health insurance offers you coverage right from the day you travel/ reach your destination.
  • If not most of the test will be performed by them before issuing you a valid policy
  • However the above mentioned are all basic, and might not cost you much when compared to what you will be charged in other countries.

   

   

  That’s all about health and immunization, feel free to ask in case you have any doubts.

   

  Hope this helps,

  
  

  PS: Not original :P just got it from a good source

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Regards
Rashmesh

[Anirban Chatterji]

Attached the health form which needs to be filled.