Designated Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre
Travel clinic in Calgary
A consultation built around your actual trip: where you are going, when, for how long, what you will be doing there, and what you have had before. Then only the vaccines that trip needs.
Why the consultation comes first
Two people flying to the same country can need completely different things. A week at a resort is not a month backpacking, and neither is three weeks visiting family in a rural area, which is consistently the highest-risk pattern of travel and the one people least expect to be told that about.
There is no standard list, because the risk sits in the details of the trip rather than in the destination alone: which regions you will actually be in, how long for, in which season, in what kind of accommodation, how far you will be from health care, and what your own age, pregnancy, immune status, conditions and previous vaccinations add to that.
So the consultation is not a formality before the needles. It is the part that decides which needles, and which ones you can skip.
What we go through
The itinerary
Countries, regions within them, rural or urban, and the season you are travelling in.
How you are travelling
Resort, hostel, family home, tent. It changes the risk more than the destination does.
Your vaccination history
Bring any record you have. Routine vaccines from childhood often cover part of the list already, and travel is a good moment to confirm measles in particular is current.
Your health and medications
Pregnancy, a suppressed immune system and some chronic conditions change what is suitable.
What is happening there now
Outbreaks, travel health notices and entry requirements change. We check current advice rather than working from memory.
What a destination can call for, and why
These are the travel vaccines that come up most. Which of them applies to you is the output of the consultation, not something to be read off a list — but it helps to see what each one is actually for.
- Contaminated food and water
- Blood and body fluids
- Contaminated food and water
- Bites or scratches from infected mammals
- Mosquito bites
- Mosquito bites
- Respiratory droplets
What we can give you
Yellow fever
We are a designated Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre and can issue the international certificate. No referral needed.
Typhoid
Injection or capsules, depending on your trip and your age.
Hepatitis A and B
Among the most commonly recommended for travel, and often already partly covered by routine childhood vaccines.
Routine catch-ups
Tetanus, measles and polio boosters are checked as part of the consultation, because travel is when the gaps matter.
Malaria prevention
Not a vaccine. Where it is needed, the pharmacist can prescribe tablets and go through how to take them.
Traveller's diarrhoea
A prevention plan, a rehydration strategy, and where the itinerary warrants it, something to carry for self-treatment. We will tell you honestly when a product is not worth it.
TB skin testing
For work, school or immigration paperwork, and it can be done in the same visit as your travel vaccines.
Malaria prevention, in four parts
There is no malaria vaccine for travellers, so prevention is a set of habits and, where it fits, a prescription. Federal guidance sets it out as A, B, C and D.
Awareness of the risk
Whether the specific regions on your itinerary carry malaria, and in which season. A country-level answer is too coarse to plan from.
Bites, avoided
The mosquitoes that carry malaria bite between dusk and dawn, so evening and overnight protection does most of the work here.
Chemoprophylaxis where it applies
Preventive tablets, decided on destination and region, season, length and type of trip, your medical history, and what you already take. Where several options are suitable, federal guidance suggests atovaquone-proguanil first, though cost, dosing schedule and how you got on with a previous course all reasonably change the answer.
Diagnosis, urgently
The part travellers underestimate. A fever during or after time in a malaria area needs urgent assessment, and malaria can appear weeks after you are home. Tell whoever sees you where you have been.
The illness you are most likely to actually get
Federal guidance puts the incidence of traveller's diarrhoea at 20 to 90 per cent for travellers spending up to two weeks in a high-risk region. Most cases are mild and settle on their own, but up to half of the people affected lose activity time on their trip, and up to one in ten go on to persistent diarrhoea or another complication.
The usual causes are bacterial, E. coli and Campylobacter in particular, though the mix varies by region. Prevention is food, water and hand hygiene rather than a product, which is why our Dukoral page says what it says. Depending on the destination and your health history, the consultation may also cover something to carry in case a moderate or severe episode develops.
Get medical attention rather than self-treating if there is blood in the stool, a high fever, persistent vomiting, severe abdominal pain, or signs of real dehydration. Young children, older adults, pregnant travellers and people with certain conditions are the most vulnerable to dehydration, so the threshold for getting looked at is lower for them.
Eating and drinking safely
The Government of Canada compresses this to boil it, cook it, peel it or leave it. The specifics behind the phrase are what actually help, and they still apply after you are vaccinated, because hepatitis A and typhoid vaccines do not cover the other things contaminated food and water carry.
Hot food, still hot
Well cooked and served hot. Food that has been standing at room temperature is the common failure.
Water you can account for
Boiled, disinfected or commercially sealed. Ice made from purified water, and bottled or purified water for brushing your teeth.
Fruit and vegetables you washed or peeled yourself
Washed in safe water, or peeled by you. Somebody else's rinse is not something you have information about.
What to leave
Raw or undercooked meat and fish, unpasteurised dairy and juices, and food from street vendors.
Hands
Soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or a sanitiser that is at least 60 per cent alcohol.
If you carry an epinephrine auto-injector
Canadian guidance is to travel with at least two. They are hard to find in some countries, and a food allergy is harder to manage in a language you do not read.
Not getting bitten
Mosquitoes carry more than malaria. Dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis are all mosquito-borne, and for several of them there is neither a vaccine nor a preventive tablet, so this is the whole of the protection rather than a supplement to it.
Repellent, applied in the right order
An approved repellent on exposed skin, put on after sunscreen rather than before, and never sprayed straight at the face.
Clothing that covers
Long sleeves, long trousers tucked into socks, closed shoes, and light-coloured tightly woven fabric. Permethrin-treated clothing is an option for adults.
Where you sleep
Screened or air-conditioned rooms, and netting over the bed in anything less enclosed. Netting over playpens and strollers for infants and small children.
Time of day, which is the part that gets missed
Dengue and Zika mosquitoes bite mainly during the day, malaria mosquitoes from dusk to dawn. Protecting only the night leaves half the risk uncovered.
A bite or scratch is never wait-and-see
Pre-exposure rabies vaccination simplifies the treatment but does not replace it. Any bite, scratch or lick on broken skin from a mammal needs prompt medical assessment, vaccinated or not.
Travelling with your own prescriptions
Plan for a delay, and for questions at a border.
Enough for the trip, plus a margin
A delayed flight should not become a missed week of doses. Start the refill early enough that a supply gap is not the thing that holds you up.
In hand luggage, not checked
Bags go missing on exactly the trips where the medication cannot be replaced.
In the original labelled container
The label is the documentation. Repacking a month of tablets into an unmarked box is what turns a short conversation at a border into a long one.
Paperwork for anything controlled
Controlled medications, injectables and medical devices need documentation with them. Ask us what to carry before you go.
Check the destination and the stopover
Medications that are routine here are restricted or banned elsewhere, and pseudoephedrine, codeine and stimulants cause trouble more often than people expect. The rules of a country you only transit still count.
Anything that needs refrigeration
Work out how it stays cold in transit and at the other end before you leave, rather than at the airport.
Why going home is the highest-risk kind of trip
Travellers visiting friends and relatives get ill more often than tourists do, and it is not bad luck. The pattern is longer stays, private homes rather than hotels, local food, more rural travel and far closer contact with the community. Every one of those raises exposure.
Having grown up somewhere does not mean you are still protected. Malaria immunity acquired in childhood fades after years away, which is why someone going back to a malaria-endemic country after a decade in Canada is at real risk despite having lived there. Typhoid guidance singles this group out for the same reason.
If you are heading back to a country you once lived in, the consultation is still worth booking. The place has changed, and so have you.
Travelling with a chronic condition
Diabetes, heart or lung disease, a suppressed immune system, a history of blood clots, severe allergies, limited mobility, an ongoing pregnancy. None of these rules out travel. They change how much of the trip has to be planned in advance.
That planning usually covers how medication is stored, how doses shift across time zones, how you would reach health care where you are going, whether your insurance genuinely covers the condition, and whether specific vaccines are suitable at all. Live vaccines are not appropriate for everyone, and immune status can change how well any vaccine works.
Bring the condition and the medication list at the start of the consultation rather than at the end. They change the recommendations rather than sitting beside them.
Children need more lead time than you do
Several travel vaccines have a minimum age, and some routine childhood schedules can be brought forward for a trip. Measles vaccine, for instance, may be given earlier than usual to a child travelling somewhere measles is circulating.
Those adjustments need room to work. A schedule that can be compressed six weeks out often cannot be at two, so book the children's part of the trip earlier than your own.
What to bring to the appointment
Bring the details that change the recommendation, not only the destination.
Your itinerary, by region
Specific regions rather than only countries, with departure and return dates and any stopovers.
Vaccination records
Whatever you have. Childhood vaccines often cover part of the list already, and an old yellow fever certificate may still be valid.
A current medication list
Including over-the-counter products and supplements, which interact with travel medications more often than people assume.
Allergy information
Including any previous reaction to a vaccine.
Relevant medical history
Pregnancy or breastfeeding, immune conditions, and anything ongoing. These decide whether a live vaccine is appropriate and which antimalarial is safe for you.
In this section
- Yellow fever vaccineYellow fever vaccine can only be given at a designated centre, and the certificate can only be issued by one. We are a designated centre in NW Calgary, and you do not need a referral.
- Typhoid vaccineTyphoid is spread through contaminated food and water. It is one of the vaccines most often recommended for South Asia, and for anyone staying with family rather than in a hotel.
- DukoralDukoral is widely sold to travellers as protection against traveller's diarrhoea. The evidence for that use is weak, and for most people on a typical trip we will tell you it is not worth it.
- TB skin testA tuberculin skin test for employment, school placement or immigration paperwork. Two visits, a few days apart, and no doctor's referral.
- What travel vaccines costThe short answer is that Alberta Health does not usually pay for them, many private plans do, and the total depends entirely on which vaccines your trip actually needs. Here is how it works, so the number is not a surprise.
Common questions
Do you offer walk-in vaccinations as well as booked appointments?
Book ahead for a travel consultation. For vaccinations, call 403-930-5806 to confirm availability and whether a walk-in visit or booked appointment is appropriate for the service you need.
How far ahead should I book a travel consultation?
Six to eight weeks before departure. The Government of Canada recommends about six weeks and the Canadian Immunization Guide at least four to six, and the extra room covers multi-dose schedules and the two weeks some vaccines need to take full effect. Come in anyway if you are leaving sooner, because there is usually still something worth doing.
Do I need a referral?
No. You can book a travel consultation directly with the pharmacy, including for yellow fever.
What should I bring?
Your itinerary, any vaccination records you have, a list of your medications, and your insurance card. If you have an old yellow fever certificate, bring that too.
Do I need travel vaccines for every trip abroad?
No. It depends on the destination and the specific regions within it, how long you are staying, what you will be doing, your health history and what you have already had. Some trips need nothing travel-specific at all beyond confirming your routine vaccines are current.
Can I get several vaccines at the same appointment?
Often, yes. Many vaccines can be given in one visit where that is clinically appropriate. The pharmacist confirms the schedule based on which ones you need and whether any of them have to be spaced apart.
Do I still need a consultation if I have been to the country before?
Usually. Outbreaks, disease activity and entry requirements change between trips, and so do your own health, medications and itinerary. Immunity picked up from living somewhere, malaria immunity in particular, fades after years away.
Is any of this worth it for an all-inclusive resort?
It can be. A resort removes some exposures and not others. Food, water, mosquitoes and entry requirements do not stop at the gate, and the mosquitoes that carry dengue and Zika bite during the day.
I am leaving next week. Is it too late?
No, and both the Government of Canada and the Canadian Immunization Guide say so explicitly. A short-notice consultation can still cover appropriate vaccines, malaria prevention, something to carry for traveller's diarrhoea and destination-specific precautions. What it cannot always deliver is a completed multi-dose series or a yellow fever certificate, which needs its ten days.
Are travel vaccines covered by Alberta Health?
Travel vaccines are generally not covered by Alberta Health, though many private and employer plans reimburse them. Call 403-930-5806 for current pricing before you book, and keep your receipt for your insurer.
Can you vaccinate my children?
Yes. Bring their Alberta immunization record so the pharmacist can see what they have already had and work out what the trip adds. Book earlier for children than you would for yourself, because several travel vaccines have a minimum age and some routine schedules can only be brought forward if there is time.