Live vaccinations?

[Saska-Jul31]

First of all thank you to all of you at HU. I was only diagnosed 12 weeks ago, am on W and W and 6 monthly blood tests. I had never even heard of CLL so this informative and supportive forum is a Godsend to me as I try to learn about this disease.

We are booked to go on a cruise of the West Indies next January, the deposit paid before we had any idea of my CLL! My concern is that I am likely to need vaccinations and have learned that of course with CLL, we are immunocompromised and can't have live vaccines. I have been " googling " to find out which vaccines are live. Please does anyone have any advice for me ? My other concern is the Zika virus as there is a trip to the Rain Forest, though I could easily sit that one out. The deposit was expensive and we are looking forward to this holiday, we would be sorry to have to cancel.

[Oleboyredw-uk]

Hi,

I normally start off with this website gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

I noticed just recently they trimmed it a bit and entries on the site also point to here: travelhealthpro.org.uk/coun...

What I do is print out the relevant pages and then book an appointment to see the nurse at my GP practice. That normally ends up as two visits with her doing a bit of research in between.

rob

[Saska-Jul31 in reply to Oleboyredw-uk]

Many thanks for this useful information.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

There is no vaccine for Zika, but I would be more concerned about Norovirus, which is seen on cruise ships on occasion. The yellow fever virus is live and some areas require vaccination to enter a region, as is the dengue vaccine, but that wouldn't likely be required.

The CDC in the U.S. has a section on this and we fall generally in the same category as an HIV patient, however post treatment for perhaps a year we are in the severely immunocompromised category, when CD4 T cell are suppressed...

This is worth reading...

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellow...

The CDC also tracks Norovirus out breaks, but only on ships leaving U.S. ports, it doesn't track ships from other ports.

cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/gilis...

You certainly want to have your pneumonia vaccinations, both types, up to date as well as tetanus etc...

~chris

[Saska-Jul31]

Thank you for your informative reply.

[wmay13241]

My wife's two oncologists both say "No" to live vaccines if you have lymphoma; dead vaccines are ok.

[Quarry]

You sounds like you are very early stages, so go and enjoy the holiday!

Ask you GP (and/or haematologist re vaccines, but as said above, live vaccines are a 'no'

Ask you haematologist at next visit on any precautions you should take - if they are like mine, they will want you to live life to the full and be supportive!

[Saska-Jul31]

Thank you so much for your positive reply.