Travel to South Korea

South Korea is an industrialized nation with a high level of medical care available in the city of Seoul.  It is not necessary to be seen at the Student Health Center’s Travel Clinic for travel to South Korea if your travel will be limited to Seoul.  However, if you plan on traveling outside of Seoul to more rural areas, we would recommend a consultation in our Travel Clinic to determine if you need medications to prevent malaria and treat traveler’s diarrhea, as well as typhoid vaccine and Japanese encephalitis vaccine.  Please call the Student Health Center at 360-650-3400, option 1, to schedule appointments in our Travel Clinic.

For travel limited to Seoul, South Korea, we recommend travelers be up to date on routine immunizations.  These include polio, tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis (Td or Tdap), measles/mumps/rubella (MMR), chickenpox (varicella) and hepatitis B.  Hepatitis A vaccine is also recommended for travel to South Korea.  You can visit the CDC web site at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/south-korea.aspx  for more specific information about immunization information and recommendations for travel to South Korea.  If you need to update your routine immunizations or want to receive hepatitis A vaccine, call the Student Health Center at 650-3400 to schedule an appointment with a nurse to get those vaccines.  You do not need a Travel Clinic appointment to receive routine vaccinations including hepatitis A vaccine.

Japanese encephalitis vaccine is available for travelers who are going to rural parts of South Korea for extended periods of time during periods of peak transmission.  This vaccine is not usually indicated if traveling only to Seoul.  Please refer to the CDC web site at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/south-korea.aspx  for more specific information about Japanese encephalitis disease and the Japanese encephalitis vaccine.  It takes a month to complete the 2-shot series and will cost approximately $440.
 
If you have any additional questions about travel to South Korea, you may contact the Student Health Center Travel Nurse, Teri Bodensteiner, RN by email at Teresa.Bodensteiner@wwu.edu.