The Ultimate Turkey Travel Guide: 5 Things a Liverpool Pharmacist Wants You to Know Before You Fly

**1. For a fortnight in a resort, the honest answer is usually "not much".**

If you're flying to Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum or Marmaris, staying in a hotel or a self-catering apartment, eating on site and drinking bottled water, the travel-health work is mostly making sure your ordinary UK vaccines are up to date. There is no vaccine required for entry from the UK, and there is no malaria to prevent. For a large share of the people who ask us about Turkey, that is the entire answer.

We say it out loud because it is the part a search engine won't tell you. A generic list shows you five or six vaccines against the word "Turkey" without knowing whether you're spending a week beside a pool in Side or a month on a farm in the east. This is one of the destinations where we most often tell people they can keep their money. The consultation is still worth having, because the ten minutes it takes to check your records is what turns "probably fine" into "actually fine".

**2. Hepatitis A and typhoid depend on how you travel, not on the word "Turkey".**

Both are spread through contaminated food and water, and for Turkey both sit in the "consider, depending" category rather than the automatic one. Hepatitis A is the more commonly advised of the two. It's worth considering for travel outside the resort bubble, for longer stays, for anyone staying with family or in local accommodation, and for people who intend to eat widely from street vendors and small local places - which, to be fair, is where most of the good food in Turkey is.

Typhoid is more selective again. It comes onto the table for rural travel, for eastern and south-eastern regions, for extended stays, and for people visiting friends and relatives, who consistently have higher exposure than tourists because they eat in homes rather than hotels.

Practically, both are single injections. Hepatitis A gives good protection from that first dose, with a booster 6-12 months later taking you to around 25 years. Typhoid gives roughly three years. Before you assume you need either, check your records - plenty of people have had them for a previous trip and forgotten.

**3. Rabies is the real consideration, and it scales with time and how rural you go.**

Turkey has rabies in both domestic and wild animals, and stray dogs are a normal part of the street scene in many towns and cities. Rabies is effectively always fatal once symptoms begin, so the whole game is what happens after a bite, a scratch, or a lick on broken skin.

Pre-exposure vaccination does not make you immune. What it does is remove the need for rabies immunoglobulin after an exposure - the part of the treatment that is hardest to obtain quickly outside major centres - and reduce the post-exposure course to two doses. That is why the decision hangs on how far you'll be from reliable medical care and how long you're there for.

For a fortnight in a resort it is usually not indicated. It becomes a serious conversation for stays of a month or more, for rural and eastern routes, for cyclists, runners and motorcyclists, for anyone working with animals, and for families with young children - children are bitten more often and are far less likely to tell an adult. The course is three doses, and there is an accelerated schedule that fits inside a week if your departure is close.

Whether or not you're vaccinated: wash any animal bite with soap and running water for a good fifteen minutes and seek medical advice the same day, in Turkey, not when you get home.

**4. The vaccines most likely to be out of date are the boring British ones.**

Tetanus, diphtheria and polio come as one combined booster, and most adults are due one every ten years when travelling. Tetanus in particular is the one that matters after a cut on a rock, a scrape from a moped, or an animal bite - all reasonably common holiday events.

Measles is the other. There have been outbreaks across Europe, Turkey included, and protection means two documented doses of MMR. Adults born in the late 1970s and through the 1980s often had only one, and it is free on the NHS at any age. If you have children who are mid-schedule, it's worth checking they've had both doses before you fly rather than after.

In a lot of our Turkey appointments this is the only thing that changes. It is unglamorous, and it is the most useful part.

**5. If you're going for a medical or dental procedure, it's a different appointment.**

Turkey is one of the world's largest destinations for dental work, hair restoration and cosmetic surgery, and a meaningful share of the Turkey consultations we do are for people flying out for a procedure rather than a holiday.

We won't comment on the clinic you've chosen - that isn't our place. What we will do is cover the preventable parts. Hepatitis B is the relevant one: it's blood-borne, and any procedure that breaks the skin is a potential route, so if you aren't already vaccinated it's worth discussing. It's a course rather than a single dose, so it needs lead time, though accelerated schedules exist. Tetanus should be current.

It's also worth planning the timing so you aren't recovering from a procedure and a sore arm at the same time, and worth thinking through what you'll do about dressings, stitches and any complication once you're back in Liverpool. Most standard travel insurance excludes elective procedures abroad and anything arising from them - ask your insurer before you fly rather than after.

**The practical bit**

Come in 4-6 weeks before you fly if a course is likely to be involved, because rabies and hepatitis B are schedules rather than single doses. If you can't, come anyway - accelerated options exist, and hepatitis A and typhoid begin working within days.

Malaria is not a consideration for Turkey. Nobody needs tablets for a Turkish holiday, and if you're told otherwise, ask on what basis. Where Turkey is one leg of a longer trip, that changes - and the clinic is run by an Independent Prescriber, so if any part of your route does need malaria prevention tablets they're assessed, prescribed and dispensed in the same visit rather than sending you back to your GP.

Bring your itinerary, including the inland bits you assume are irrelevant, and whatever vaccine records you have: a red book, a GP printout, a photo of an old certificate. We're open weekdays until 6pm and on Saturday mornings, and we can usually see you the same day with about two hours' notice.

This guide is written and reviewed by the pharmacists who run the clinic, against current NaTHNaC and UKHSA Green Book guidance. It is general information, not a personal recommendation - your own risk assessment happens at the consultation.

Guidance we work from

Frequently Asked Questions