Ideally, the vaccination should be given 4 weeks before travel. A combined hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine is also available in Australia. It is given as a course of 3 doses of vaccine: one vaccination is given immediately, the second is given one month later, and the third is given 5 months after that.
Although Haemophilus influenzae is not the cause of influenza, it is still responsible for a number of different clinical diseases in humans. And since it is able to adapt to the penicillin binding protein, it has acquired a level of resistance to the different kinds of penicillin antibiotics. Haemophilus influenzae is a non-motile, Gram-negative, fastidious, non-spore forming, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium.
H. influenzae can be differentiated from most other species of Haemophilus by its specific requirement for both hemin and NAD for growth . H. haemolyticus is the only other species requiring both hemin and NAD for growth; however, this species differs from H. influenzae by producing beta-hemolysis (clear) on horse or rabbit blood. For patients with bacterial meningitis, H. influenzae must be considered as the presumptive causative agent as opposed to H. haemolyticus when both hemin and NAD factors are required for growth. To differentiate between the two species, hemolysis must be checked on horse or rabbit blood agar (see Section II.B., Haemophilus ID Quad plate section below).