General Reports

[Member #4410]

No, it is not. And I'm not saying that because "I never got it".

Then what reason can you possibly have to advise somebody that vaccinations are unneccessary?

Are you better informed than Travel Clinics?

Regards,

Ko

[Member #4410]

Actually a rabies vaccine will be next on my list (I already have the tetanus shots and the Hep A & B shots) and I suggest you give it some good thought.

Recently the daughter of my Thai GF was bitten by a stray dog in her village. She went to the local hospital and they gave her a full anti-rabies treatment even though there was no indication this was a rabid dog. The doctor's reasoning was as follows: there is but a small chance of the dog being infected and even less chance of it having transmitted rabies to her, but once you catch rabies it is almost always fatal if you are not treated before the onset of the symptoms. The incubation period is usually a few weeks, but in some cases symptoms appear after a few days already.

Immediate post exposure treatment (which is costly and painful) is almost 100% certain to defeat the rabies virus, but why take any chances if a vaccine is available? Don't forget Thailand is third in the world ranking of human deaths by rabies (after India and Vietnam).

I am not a doctor, so don't take my word for it. Speak to your doctor and ask his point of view.

I have to put in a correction here. I travelled to two areas where rabiës is not uncommon, Kazakhstan (dogs) and Indonesia (cats and bats) so I took the shots.

I was informed that despite these shots I would still need additional shots within 24 hours if I considered there was a risk of infection. These could be the standard vaccinations, not the anti-virus which is rarely in stock in local hospitals.

Don't think the incubation period is a few weeks: IT IS NOT. Once you contract rabiës it is always fatal, not almost always.

Kind regards,

Ko

[Luvpuss]

Please stop with the scare tactics.

1. Around Nana the dogs seem to be well fed. LOL. I do make wide turns around them though. If people were catching rabies from these soi dogs I'm sure they would have been eliminated a long time ago. The aggressive ladyboys scare me more than the dogs.

2. All mosq. Could be potentially carrying disease. I've been bitten by BKK mosquitoes, it itches a bit then goes away. I'd be more terriifed of catching diseases from your 500 baht streetwalker. LOL.

Most of those dogs are friendly. But they do seem to be diseased with their unkempt sad looks and pus ozzing from their AH's.

I tried to feed a few some cooked beef. The ones that hang out near the skytrain stairs a block from Soi 8. They would not eat it.

I came back later and saw one of them eating dog shit.

[Scorchin1470]

You are correct. That was inaccurate advice you provided.

No matter where I've gone in the city it has been difficult to escape potentially disease carrying mosquitos, such as on the street, in a bar or restaurant, at MBK or a hotel room. I've recieved quite a number of bites in BKK, some even on the face, which often itch for days, with much larger swelling than bites in Canada & can make a 16 square inch area of my skin turn black for weeks.

http://www.thaitravelclinic.com/blog...necessary.html

Which bit of advice was inaccurate. After you said I was correct?

Given the serious concerns over the increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics (it pays drug companies to find a cure for baldness rather than a cure for malaria) many doctors advise a three

Day wait (rice, bananas and fluids helps as do rehydration packs) with DandV before you use antibiotics.

Go talk to your doctor again about the bites. You have a very high reaction to bites which may indicate something more serious.

[Phordphan]

Just to stir more bickering, that is always needed here. The nickname of the member you are responding to, suggests that he is from a country not exactly know for sense of humor. Sarcasm is then probably an alien concept there.

Actually, my somewhat snide comment was to the post by Big Poppa. I couldn't tell from whence he hails, based up on that handle.

[Phordphan]

On the street (the law says "in a street, public place or any other place", so in theory even the privacy of your hotel room does not protect her!) , she may offer her services, provided she does not "cause nuisance to the public" or does not make that offer "in an open and shameless manner". And even if she runs afoul of these rules, it still does not make the prostitution illegal, only the way the offer was made.

You may think this is splitting hairs, but we lawyers make a living by distinguishing such subtle differences.

And I fully agree that the Soi 6 bars in Pattaya are on the wrong side of the law. Same same for the BJ bars. They are clearly in violation of Section 6 of the law ("Any person who associates with another person in a prostitution establishment for the purpose of prostitution of himself or herself or another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding one thousand Baht or to both."). But that still does not make the act of prostitution illegal.

Whether an a-gogo club is illegal is a more difficult question. Is it a "prostitution establishment"? The definition is "a place established for prostitution or in which the prostitution is allowed, and shall include a place used for soliciting or procuring another person for prostitution". I am sure these are not places "established for prostitition" or "in which prostitution is allowed" (those are the Soi 6 type of bars). But I think they come dangerously close to being "a place used for soliciting or procuring another person for prostitution". I guess that the "barfine" trick (you pay the club some money to take the girl away before the end of her shift and the club has nothing to do with the negotiation or organisation of some extra-curricular activities) will not survive any close scrutiny.

Fortunately the Thai police is too busy with checking the drivers licences of farang motorcycle riders to bother themselves with the a-gogo clubs.

Agreed.

Actually, it seems most of the cops have time to hassle motorcycle-riding farangs, because they've already been paid off by said go-go bars.

[PinkPearl]

To look at the web sites. That is what you pay him for. He will research the same web site (s) and make a judgement on what you need.

This is a sex site not a medical site and you will be flooded with inaccurate advice and here isa bit. You don't need rabies inoculations unless you are spending along time up-country.

In 40 years of international travel I have never seen nor heard directly of rabid animals

You are correct. That was inaccurate advice you provided.

My doctor in Canada referred me to a travel clinic since that is what they specialize in & they keep up with the latest info which is continuously changing.

For my present multi month trip to Bangkok they recommended rabies shots as well as several others I mentioned in my other post on this topic.

Around NEP in Bangkok it is not uncommon to see what appears to be stray malnourished dogs & cats that could be carrying rabies.

BTW another serious medical concern is traveller's diarrhea (TD) & the travel clinic informed me re a number of ways to tackle that, including antibiotic pills. My doctor actually gave me the wrong antibiotic (ciprofloxacin) for TD, while the travel clinic prescribed for me the correct antibiotic for TD in Thailand, which is azithromycin.

No matter where I've gone in the city it has been difficult to escape potentially disease carrying mosquitos, such as on the street, in a bar or restaurant, at MBK or a hotel room. I've recieved quite a number of bites in BKK, some even on the face, which often itch for days, with much larger swelling than bites in Canada & can make a 16 square inch area of my skin turn black for weeks.

http://www.thaitravelclinic.com/blog...necessary.html

[PinkPearl]

Actually a rabies vaccine will be next on my list (I already have the tetanus shots and the Hep A & B shots) and I suggest you give it some good thought.

Recently the daughter of my Thai GF was bitten by a stray dog in her village. She went to the local hospital and they gave her a full anti-rabies treatment even though there was no indication this was a rabid dog. The doctor's reasoning was as follows: there is but a small chance of the dog being infected and even less chance of it having transmitted rabies to her, but once you catch rabies it is almost always fatal if you are not treated before the onset of the symptoms. The incubation period is usually a few weeks, but in some cases symptoms appear after a few days already.

Immediate post exposure treatment (which is costly and painful) is almost 100% certain to defeat the rabies virus, but why take any chances if a vaccine is available? Don't forget Thailand is third in the world ranking of human deaths by rabies (after India and Vietnam).

I am not a doctor, so don't take my word for it. Speak to your doctor and ask his point of view.

If you've recieved the rabies vaccine you will still need to get shots in case you are bitten & should immediately start that process. The vaccine only decreases the number of shots you will require.

The travel clinic in Canada also recommended to me Japanese B Encephalitis & Typhoid shots in addition to those you mentioned.

http://travelclinic.vch.ca

[Luvpuss]

http://life.time.com/curiosities/pho...beyond-belief/#1

[Wolvenvacht]

Also, I didn't mention nor even consider rablies. Where did you come up with that?

Actually a rabies vaccine will be next on my list (I already have the tetanus shots and the Hep A & B shots) and I suggest you give it some good thought.

Recently the daughter of my Thai GF was bitten by a stray dog in her village. She went to the local hospital and they gave her a full anti-rabies treatment even though there was no indication this was a rabid dog. The doctor's reasoning was as follows: there is but a small chance of the dog being infected and even less chance of it having transmitted rabies to her, but once you catch rabies it is almost always fatal if you are not treated before the onset of the symptoms. The incubation period is usually a few weeks, but in some cases symptoms appear after a few days already.

Immediate post exposure treatment (which is costly and painful) is almost 100% certain to defeat the rabies virus, but why take any chances if a vaccine is available? Don't forget Thailand is third in the world ranking of human deaths by rabies (after India and Vietnam).

I am not a doctor, so don't take my word for it. Speak to your doctor and ask his point of view.

[Wolvenvacht]

I was being sarcastic. However, prostitution, the way most of it is practiced in Thailand, is illegal. Please refer to The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B. E. 2539 (1996).

It provides for penalties (albeit small by today's standards) for anybody soliciting prostitution, at least in a public place. Now, the definition of "public" may be open to a bit of debate, but certainly all the girls on Pty Soi 6, or Beach Road, are in violation. Almost all the Soi 6 bars are in violation. BJ bars? Ya think? In fact, I suspect that the go-gos of BKK don't pay tea money to the local fuzz because the owners are generous, nice guys. It can certainly be argued that a go-go is an illegal business.

A lady offering her services in the privacy of your room isn't illegal. But if you discussed it on the street with her, then it is. So, while the law may not be enforced, most of what passes for prostitution in LOS these days IS illegal.

On the street (the law says "in a street, public place or any other place", so in theory even the privacy of your hotel room does not protect her!) , she may offer her services, provided she does not "cause nuisance to the public" or does not make that offer "in an open and shameless manner". And even if she runs afoul of these rules, it still does not make the prostitution illegal, only the way the offer was made.

You may think this is splitting hairs, but we lawyers make a living by distinguishing such subtle differences.

And I fully agree that the Soi 6 bars in Pattaya are on the wrong side of the law. Same same for the BJ bars. They are clearly in violation of Section 6 of the law ("Any person who associates with another person in a prostitution establishment for the purpose of prostitution of himself or herself or another person shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not exceeding one thousand Baht or to both."). But that still does not make the act of prostitution illegal.

Whether an a-gogo club is illegal is a more difficult question. Is it a "prostitution establishment"? The definition is "a place established for prostitution or in which the prostitution is allowed, and shall include a place used for soliciting or procuring another person for prostitution". I am sure these are not places "established for prostitition" or "in which prostitution is allowed" (those are the Soi 6 type of bars). But I think they come dangerously close to being "a place used for soliciting or procuring another person for prostitution". I guess that the "barfine" trick (you pay the club some money to take the girl away before the end of her shift and the club has nothing to do with the negotiation or organisation of some extra-curricular activities) will not survive any close scrutiny.

Fortunately the Thai police is too busy with checking the drivers licences of farang motorcycle riders to bother themselves with the a-gogo clubs.

[Wolvenvacht]

Just to stir more bickering, that is always needed here. The nickname of the member you are responding to, suggests that he is from a country not exactly know for sense of humor. Sarcasm is then probably an alien concept there.

It is not. I am from Belgium and we have great stand-up comedians here and our policital scene is a world-reknowned farce.

Anyhow, unless you have followed the whole series of messages leading up to the "prostitution is illegal", you will never understand it was a sarcastic remark. It is my firm belief that humor is a good thing, but that you should never ever give wrong information unless you do it in such a way that in and by itself is clear for all it is a joke.

Remember that many of the readers of this forum do not have English as their first language and many will also not read all messages all the time.

[Sxxxx]

Just to stir more bickering, that always needed here. The nickname of the member you are responding to, suggests that he is from a country not exactly know for sense of humor. Sarcasm is then probably an alien concept there.

I think you might be right. Shame some countries are serious, they miss out on a lot.

[Marcos]

I was being sarcastic

Just to stir more bickering, that is always needed here. The nickname of the member you are responding to, suggests that he is from a country not exactly know for sense of humor. Sarcasm is then probably an alien concept there.

[Phordphan]

Prostitution is NOT illegal in Thailand. Pimping is illegal, so is holding a brothel or being a nuisance when publicly solliciting as a prostitute.

I was being sarcastic. However, prostitution, the way most of it is practiced in Thailand, is illegal. Please refer to The Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, B. E. 2539 (1996).

It provides for penalties (albeit small by today's standards) for anybody soliciting prostitution, at least in a public place. Now, the definition of "public" may be open to a bit of debate, but certainly all the girls on Pty Soi 6, or Beach Road, are in violation. Almost all the Soi 6 bars are in violation. BJ bars? Ya think? In fact, I suspect that the go-gos of BKK don't pay tea money to the local fuzz because the owners are generous, nice guys. It can certainly be argued that a go-go is an illegal business.

A lady offering her services in the privacy of your room isn't illegal. But if you discussed it on the street with her, then it is. So, while the law may not be enforced, most of what passes for prostitution in LOS these days IS illegal.