Helen's story
Helen never imagined a walk along the beach could change her life so dramatically.
During their holiday in a South East Asian country, she and her husband were walking barefoot in the shallows when Helen cut her foot on a broken shell. It wasn’t a dangerously deep cut, but it needed medical attention and at a nearby clinic she was injected with a local anaesthetic before the wound was cleaned and stitched.
That’s when the real trouble began.
Like most travellers, Helen had no idea that hepatitis B is common in South East Asia1,2, that many hospitals in these areas routinely recycle their needles and that simply travelling to such an area is considered a hepatitis B risk factor because of the possibility of an accident resulting in an open wound that requires medical attention.2 In fact, it wasn’t until months after she returned home that Helen started feeling sick.
Very sick.
She visited her family doctor complaining of fever, nausea, vomiting and a tiredness she just couldn’t shake. A blood test confirmed the diagnosis – Helen had contracted acute hepatitis B from the contaminated needle.
A simple vaccination before leaving Australia could have helped prevent hepatitis B2 – a disease Helen took almost a year to fully recover from.
For further information about hepatitis B vaccination, please ask your doctor.
This story is for illustrative purposes only and is not based on real life events.
“The (hepatitis B) vaccine should be considered for virtually all non-immune individuals travelling to areas with moderate to high risk of infection.”3
World Health Organization
References. 1. WHO Fact Sheet, No 204. 2. Spira AM. Clin Ther 2003;25:2337–2351. 3. World Health Organization. International Travel and Health. Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2009, page 106.
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