I grew up in India, so I really don need to take any vaccines or antimalarials, do I?
Good question! Yes and no. You may have prexisting immunity to hepatitis A, which is transmitted via infected food or water. The majority of people who grew up in lesser developed countries were exposed to contaminated food and water at an early age, and though they didn’t become ill at the time, did develop lifelong immunity. This can easily be checked with a blood test. The same goes for hepatitis B – depending upon where you were born, there is a reasonable chance that you have protective antibodies. But for all of the rest – typhoid, meningitis, tetanus, diphtheria and polio, japanese encephalitis, etc., even if you have been infected in the past, there is no guarantee that you still have immunity. With respect to malaria, those who live in malarious areas do develop some protective immunity, but unfortunately, this advantage is lost after living away from that area for some time.
