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Diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccination in Kent

Three diseases, one injection, ten years - and the booster most British travellers turn out to be overdue for without knowing it.

Per dose
£50
Doses
1
Full course
£50
Call your nearest clinic about DTPSee prices
Ages
from 4 months, as part of the routine schedule
Protects for
10 years
Come in
two weeks, though a late booster is still worth giving
We stock
Revaxis

Assessed individually

Who tends to need DTP

  • Anyone whose last tetanus booster was more than ten years ago - which is most adults over thirty
  • Travel to a country where polio still circulates, or where diphtheria outbreaks have been reported
  • Trips with any real chance of a dirty wound: trekking, cycling, building work, working with animals
  • Long stays or remote travel where a tetanus-prone injury would be hours from a hospital

Three diseases that have nothing in common except the needle

Tetanus comes out of soil and animal manure, through a cut or a puncture wound, and causes the muscle spasms that gave it the name lockjaw. It is not passed between people, so it does not matter how well vaccinated the country is - only how well vaccinated you are.

Diphtheria spreads person to person in droplets and coats the throat with a membrane that can close the airway. It reappears wherever vaccination coverage drops.

Polio is swallowed - food or water contaminated with faeces - and in a small proportion of cases paralyses permanently. It has been pushed back to a handful of countries, and keeping it there depends on travellers not carrying it back out.

Why we check this one first

Most people who were vaccinated as children in the UK had their last dose at around fourteen. If you are older than twenty-four, that cover has run out or is about to, and almost nobody has it in their diary.

So this is the first thing we look at in a travel consultation, before anything exotic. It is one injection, it is among the cheapest things on our list, and it covers the risk that is actually most likely to find you - standing on something sharp a long way from a hospital.

What we need from you

Any vaccination record you can lay hands on, even a partial one. A red book, a GP printout, a photograph of a card from another country - all of it helps.

If nothing exists, that is workable. Someone with no reliable history is treated as unvaccinated and offered a three-dose primary course rather than a single booster, and we will set out what that costs before you commit to it.

Plan ahead

The course and its timing

Already had the UK childhood course
One booster dose. Repeat every 10 years while you keep travelling.
No reliable vaccination history
3 doses, each a month apart, then boosters at 10-year intervals.
  • Five doses across a lifetime are considered to give long-term protection in the UK schedule; travel boosters are given on top where cover has lapsed and the destination warrants it.
  • Polio-endemic countries can require proof of recent vaccination to leave rather than to enter. We will tell you if that applies to your itinerary.

What to expect

Common side effects

  • A sore arm, sometimes for several days - this one is reliably achy
  • A small firm lump at the site that can last a week or two
  • Mild fever or tiredness on the first evening

Side effects are usually mild and settle within a day or two. A reaction that worries you, or anything that is getting worse rather than better, is worth a call to the clinic that vaccinated you — or to 111 out of hours.

Common questions

DTP questions

  • I had a tetanus jab after cutting myself a few years ago. Does that count?

    Usually yes - A&E generally gives the same combined vaccine. If you can tell us roughly when, we can often count it and save you a dose.

  • Can I get just the tetanus part?

    No, and you would not want to. The single-component vaccines are no longer routinely used in the UK; the combined injection costs the same and covers three diseases instead of one.

  • Why does polio still matter if it is nearly eradicated?

    Nearly is the operative word. While it circulates anywhere, an unvaccinated traveller can carry it to a country that had stopped seeing it, and some countries ask departing travellers for proof for exactly that reason.

Worth reading next

  • Rabies

    Rabipur or Verorab

    Three doses over three weeks that do not make you immune - they buy you time, which is the whole point where post-bite treatment is days away rather than hours.

    Full course £240

  • Typhoid

    One injection, around three years of cover, and it is the vaccine most often discussed for South Asia, parts of Africa and South America.

    Full course £50

  • Hepatitis A

    The single most commonly given travel vaccine in the UK: one dose covers your trip, and a second within a year takes you to around twenty-five years.

    Full course £120