My son will be flying out of the country on Friday. On Monday he took hi first dose of the oral Typhoid vaccine which is given in a series of 4 capsules that are taken 1 per day on alternating days (days 1, 3, 5, and 7). You must take each capsule according to the recommended schedule for this vaccine to be effective. Additionally, the capsules, sealed in individual blister packets, must be kept refrigerated. He is scheduled to take his third dose just before departing. From initial departure, it will take 26 hours and 2 plane changes w/layovers to reach his final destination. Does anyone have a suggestion for how he can keep the last capsule at a temperature between 35 and 45 degrees F until he reaches his destination? Would the airlines (American and Qantas) allow him to store the medication in their refrigerator? What about during the layovers of 1.5 and 2 hours?
Here is what I would do. Airlines have ice on board. He should bring a bunch of ziplock bags and ask the flight attendant to either put his vaccine for storage into one of the onboard refrigerators or to give him ice to keep his last blister pack on it (put the vaccine into a sealed ziplock and then put inside a larger ziplock with ice and change ice frequently. Before he exits the plane, he should get some fresh ice. If he needs to go through security again, he can dump the ice and get some fresh one after going through security. A brief moment of going through security will not destroy his vaccine, especially if it was kept cold prior to that.
Won’t putting it in ziplock bag with bag that has ice make it colder than 35 degrees? I’d ask the doc giving the vaccine for suggestions as this issue has doubtless occurred with others too.
It will not make it colder than 35 degrees - absolutely. Biologics get shipped on ice all the time and do just fine. The temp. requirement of 35-45 degrees means that it should not be frozen, so storage on regular ice is perfectly ok.
I was on Cathay Pacific last week, US to Hong Kong flight and observed an exchange between a passenger with medication needing refrigeration and flight attendant. Passenger had politely asked if medication, he was holding up a small ziplock bag with packaged meds inside, could be stored in refrigerator. He was told that they were not allowed to do this, only the airline food could be kept in the refrigerator. I believe he was given ice by flight crew.
My only point is, check with your airlines before leaving about refrigerators. If told that will be allowed, I’d get it in writing and still have a back-up plan. I don’t know if this request is an airline specific ruling or, given the ins and outs of flying these days, even a crew specific ruling which could vary with day and circumstances and crew involved.
A little ice in a cup will be fine, and to be honest, even if that last dose was a bit too warm, it will still be fine. The last doses in any vaccine series are there to boost the efficacy of the series as a whole and if the majority of the series is taken correctly, all will be well.
I travel with Forteo, a bone density medicine that is an injection pen. I have several insulated bags that are smaller than lunch bags for the Forteo and they come with 2 dry ice packs. They last about 14 hours. This would be perfect for your situation. I bet you could get one from a specialty pharmacy. I had a trip that had some delays and my ice packs melted, so I used regular ice in the compartments in the bag.
I would absolutely NOT rely on being allowed to put it in the airplane refrigerator. They will not let you do that, as has been noted above. I don’t think calling the airline gets you anything. You need to deal with it yourself, as I’ve learned.
As MomofWildChild indicates, find out what kind of dry ice/cold pack they’ll let you bring on the plane and put the medication in an insulated bag or container.
I have been flying frequently with the Forteo bag/ 2 dry ice packs for a year now and have not once been asked about it at security. I carry a copy of the prescription with me, but have never been questioned.
Thank you to all who have weighed in. I will share this thread with my son and let him decide what he thinks is the best plan.
@jaylynn - Your last sentence was reassuring. Do you have an opinion on whether trying to condense the timeline a bit to evenly spread the 4 doses over 5 days to complete before he departs would be more or less advisable than possibly ‘loosing’ the last dose?
My son uses the FRIO “wallet” to transport his medication for long flights. It is a fabric envelope that includes a thin gel pack. You just soak the gel in water for a few minutes to activate it and then insert it along with the medicine into the outside envelope. It stays cold for hours- I don’t remember how long but he used it for Hong Kong recently and it was fine. When you are done, you just let it dry out and then store it away til next time. The small single wallet size would work for what you need. It is around $20 at CVS or less on-line.
If he’s really concerned about keeping his medication cold for 24+ hours, then a stainless steel vacuum insulated container packed with ice will probably do the trick. I’m a huge fan of vacuum insulated cups and containers, they work incredibly well. I’d be comfortable with the insulated sleeves mentioned for 12 hours, but beyond that I’d go with something like this:
Or if he wants something that’ll do double-duty, he could get a vacuum insulated travel mug and have a drink tumbler which might be very helpful for what sounds like a 3rd world country visit:
The Frio wallet, unfortunately, does not cool to a “refrigeration” level. I got excited about it for my Forteo, but it only really cools to the 70s. It’s for insulin.