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Vaccinations
UK Department of Health
World Health Organisation - Saudi Arabia
Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia
World Health
Organisation, Weekly Epidemiological Record
You will need certain vaccinations for the issuance of a Hajj visa. The
World Health Organization (WHO) issues annual guidelines and
requirements concerning vaccinations for travel to various countries
including Saudi Arabia. Your physician will have the necessary
information or will be able to access it readily.
Check either with your travel agent or the Saudi Arabian Embassy for
additional requirements. The Saudi Government requirements are usually
stricter than the WHO recommendations. For instance, whereas the WHO
recommended immunization against only meningococcal meningitis for
travel to Saudi Arabia in 1997, the Saudi authorities required
immunization against cholera also.
Your doctor may recommend additional vaccinations in the light of his
knowledge and experience. The writer's doctor (a specialist in
infectious diseases) recommended and administered immunization against
typhoid fever, polio, pneumonia, diphtheria/tetanus (D/T) and malaria.
This may sound like "over-kill" and it probably is in most cases.
However, it can also save you a lot of worry and misery in those
unfortunate instances where extra care is needed. To cite an example :
in 1997 there was an outbreak of typhoid in India and some of the
pilgrims in the writer's group, who travelled to India after Hajj,
became seriously ill with the illness while there. It is possible that
they contracted the disease from carriers among the Indian pilgrims in
Saudi Arabia, or they may have contracted the disease in India itself.
In any case, earlier vaccination against the disease would have saved
them from much suffering and anxiety. Had they contracted typhoid in
Saudi Arabia itself from the Indian pilgrims, they would have had
serious problems completing their Hajj.
Be sure to obtain an official Vaccination Record Book (the "Yellow
Book") from your County or State Health Department. Have your physician
fill it out, sign it, and stamp it. Anything less may be unacceptable to
the Saudi visa authorities, and you don't want your visa application
rejected for a small detail like this. Keep the vaccination record book
with your other important documents and take it with you to Saudi
Arabia. You never know when you may need it.
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