HEALTH FORMALITIES

For entry into India

Any person, Foreigner or Indian, (excluding infants below six months) arriving by air or sea without a vaccination certificate of yellow fever will be kept in quarantine isolation for a period upto 6 days if :

1. He arrives in India within 6 days of departure from an infected area.

2. Has come on a ship which has started from or transited at any port in a yellow fever affected country within 30 days of its arrival in India provided such ship has not been disinfected in accordance with the procedure laid down by WHO.

For leaving India

There is no health check requirement by Indian Government on passengers leaving India.

Persons leaving for a yellow fever infected area are advised in their own interest to be in possession of valid yellow fever vaccination certificates before they leave the country. The Government of Guyana requires that all persons including diplomats travelling to that country from India to possess valid yellow fever and cholera inoculation certificates before they leave India.

An administrative Arrangement for the health control of sea, air and land traffic exists between the Government of India and the Government of Bangladesh. It implies that if any aircraft or ship or land traffic from a third country arrives first at any airport or port or border checkpost in either of the agreement countries and then directly (without touching any other third country enroute) reaches the second country of the agreement, all health checks will be completed in the country of first arrival and the travelers will be exempted from any further health check on arrival in the second country.

Persons exempted from production of vaccination certificate

The under mentioned persons are exempted from production of yellow fever vaccination certificate:

(a) Infants below the age of six months.

(b) Crew and passengers of an aircraft transiting through an airport located in yellow fever infected area provided the Health Officer is satisfied that such persons remained within the airport premises during the period of stay.

Yellow Fever

If a foreign tourist originates from or has transited through endemic Yellow Fever countries (Africa, South America, Papua New Guinea), he/she must possess a Yellow Fever Vaccination certificate.

No other vaccination certificate is mandatory. Precautions can be taken against typhoid, hepatitis, meningitis, measles, mumps, cholera etc.

The following countries and areas are regarded as yellow fever infected

• Africa
  Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire), Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan (South of 15 ° N), Togo, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia.

• America
  Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Panama.

A Yellow fever vaccination certificate is valid only if it conforms with the model. The validity period of international certificate of vaccination or re-vaccination against yellow fever is 10 years, beginning 10 days after vaccination.

Foreign nationals residing or who have passed through the Yellow fever endemic countries during the preceding six days, are granted visas only after the production of vaccination certificate of Yellow Fever. After checking the vaccination certificate an entry read as "Valid Yellow fever Vaccination Certificate Checked" is made in the passport of the foreigner.

Note: Indians who visit any of these countries are also required to show a Yellow Fever Vaccination certificate. When a case of Yellow Fever is reported from any country, that country is regarded by the Government of India as infected with the Yellow Fever and is added to the above list.