In Reply to: VACCINATIONS posted by ANNY on Friday, 22. February 2008 at 08:27 Bali Time:
I'm sure your travel agent would offer you travel insurance, which can prevent huge costs in the case of something happening to one of your family members. But your travel agent can not gaurantee your health, or that you will not catch any of these serious infections.
So in my opinion, I would take the advise of your doctor on health issues in regards to prevention of infection for your family.
You can get as many opinions as you would like to ease your mind from this forum, but prevention is better than the suffering that can occur.
Hep A and B injections cover your protection for a very long time and are also relevant for where ever you live, including your own country as well as overseas destinations. So they are not useless by any means.
Typhoid injections last for 3 years and typhoids are very common illnesses in places such as Bali. Very common with the locals and a small percentage of tourists do contract it.
I can understand the fact that you do not want to ruin your surprise.
If you want to feel covered by vaccinations when you travel, then you could say that when you visited your doctor he enquired if all your family members were up to date with tetnas shots, and that it is now common practice for doctors to recommend Hep A & B shots. Tetnas shots should be kept up to date for your own protection anyway.
Good luck and I hope things go your way and you are able to have a fantastic holiday at Bali, rather than staying locally.