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When we picked Sam up at the orphanage in Cambodia in 2003, he’d not had any vaccinations. Once home, routine began with the BCG, usually given at birth. He was fourteen weeks old when we returned to Seychelles from Southeast Asia, so was later than local kids with DPT, Poliomyelitis and Hepatitis B vaccines. By his first birthday, however, he had well caught up.
The situation in Cambodia had improved by July of 2005 when we traveled for Cj. She was also fourteen weeks old at the time, but had her little BCG dimple already and an immunization card documenting the first two of each in the series of three DPT and three Polio.
Countries follow various inoculation routines, many quite similar and recommended by WHO, but it can by no means be assumed that all children are inoculated equally. Although Seychelles ranks at the top in health care and preventative measures in Africa, not all vaccinations available elsewhere are obtainable here.
Knowing this, we booked appointments for both kids with a pediatrician in Singapore and stopped there for a few days on our way home from Phnom Penh. One of my favorite cities, Singapore is everything Seychelles isn’t, but still warm. This is where we go to shop and get the big city fix we need about once a year. It’s also an amazing place for anything medical. I’ve had treatment there more than once, and the kids are now on record with their own doctor. I book appointments over the Internet, getting a quick response, and they’re very good about working around our travel schedule, giving times that fit with flight times, and careful to leave enough overlap for subsequent treatment if necessary and a bit of a holiday.
Sam was able to get the Chicken Pox vaccination which they don’t have at home, and Cj the HIB, so both are now covered for things other kids in Seychelles are not. Their records are a bit confusing, as they’re in three different languages, but we’ve managed to get translations of the Khmer bits, so they fit with the Creole and English parts.
Ah, the joy of living large in the world.
