Where can I get cheap vaccines?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am headed for India for a while, and need to get vaccinations. I also don’t have insurance and would prefer not to go completly broke doing it. I was vaccinated four years ago when I visted Europe, and I know they were pretty complete (they gave my a typhoid shot of all things), but I lost my yellow card so I don’t know what shots I actually had or if they are still good.

I’ve been told that a Center for Disease Control branch office is a good place to start- apparently they will tell you what you need and get you started cheap. I tried to call a travel agent to ask where a local branch office was (they CDC website is kind of coy about where you might actually find them- I know there is one in Long Beach but that is kind of far from Santa Cruz) and she replied repeatedly “in your computer”, which was perplexing but not useful. I’ve also head the Visiting Nurse’s Association can help, but we don’t seem to have a local branch and it seems like they focus on helping the elderly, not the cheap young folks.

Any ideas?

2

Try your County Health Department, they do a lot of vaccinating, although I don’t know about exotic foreign-country type stuff. But they’d know where to start, certainly.

3

I remember when I was going to Bulgaria, they said there was a low-cost vaccination clinic at the airport (JFK). I didn’t look into it so I don’t have a ton of detail. Your larger airports in larger immigration hubs may have this sort of thing somewhere on site.

<on hold music here:: doodleee-doodlee-doodlee)

Ah yes, indeed, San Francisco Airport has a travel vaccination center.
http://www.flysfo.com/guide_nonflash/airportinfo/medical.asp
Don’t let them give you a typhoid shot. Makes you sick as a dog (well, its better than typhoid, they used to say). There’s an oral vaccine now.

4

Two linkies for you :

Lists what you need :
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/indianrg.htm

Where to go locally :
http://www.santacruzhealth.org/phealth/cd/3immunize.htm

Hope those help.