Foreign Travel Health and Adult Immunisations

A travel consultation does not just involve injections. In fact the majority of hazards faced by travellers abroad are not prevented by vaccines. A travel consultation can help you identify these risks and provide you with the opportunity to discuss how these risks can be reduced. Examples include:

• Traveller's Diarrhoea
• Food and Water Hygiene
• Insect bite avoidance
• Thrombosis (DVT) risk

The benefits of a travel consultation are:

• Up to date verbal and written advice on a range of travel health issues
• Information about recent disease outbreaks
• Travel health vaccinations, malaria tablets and other medications

Who needs to have a pre travel appointment at the Practice?

Anyone planning a trip outside of Western Europe, the States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, should discuss their travel plans with a health professional.

There are certain travellers in whom a pre travel consultation is particularly important, these include:

• Babies and young children
• The elderly
• Pregnant or breastfeeding women
• Those with pre-existing medical conditions
• If you are in any of the above categories your travel advice needs to be specifically tailored to your circumstances.

How long before I travel should I seek advice?

As a general rule, we suggest that you make an appointment for travel advice at least 6-8 weeks prior to travel when possible. This allows enough time for most travel vaccinations.

For those planning longer trips into remote areas, more time may be needed as courses of vaccines may be recommended which can take weeks to complete.

What can I expect from my travel health appointment?

First we will need some basic information about you. For example:

• Personal details including age
• Destination
• Departure date
• Length of stay
• Previous vaccinations received
• Medical history

This process can appear excessive, but it is important. We need to know which diseases, you will be at risk of on your travels and which ones we can vaccinate you against.

Once we have all the information we need we will be able to give you recommendations on vaccines and malaria tablets that may be appropriate.

Which travel vaccines are available at the practice?

Most common vaccines are available for you to have at the practice and indeed possibly at your initial appointment. These are listed below. Many of the diseases listed are combined with another in vaccine form, so don’t worry it would not be as many injections as it looks!

All vaccines are free except for the Yellow Fever vaccine for which there is a fee of £45.

• Tetanus
• Diptheria
• Polio
• Typhoid
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Meningitis C
• Yellow Fever

Malaria

All travellers need to be aware of the risk of contracting malaria when travelling in foreign countries.

Malaria is a disease that is transmitted via the bite of the mosquito. It is a life threatening disease which is fatal if left untreated. It is also avoidable!!

Prevention is always better than cure so if you are travelling to a malarious area you need to take personal protection measures to prevent or avoid mosquito bites.  This includes:

• Keeping your skin covered up particularly between sunset and sunrise
• Using an insect repellent on clothes and any exposed skin
• If you are sleeping in an unscreened room a mosquito net (which should be impregnated with insecticide) is a sensible precaution
• And while air conditioning does help to keep the mosquitoes away due to the lower temperature, it is important that it is left on all day and windows are not left open at night
• Taking antimalarials is the best protection

Most deaths from malaria occur in those who take their antimalarials irregularly or not at all.

Malaria can be prevented with the correct use of antimalarials!!

Not all antimalarials are the same when it comes to cost, side effects and duration of course. We can go though your options when you attend an appointment with one of our practice nurses. The tablets you will be advised to take will be based on where you are going and for how long. We will give you all the information you need about how to take them, for how long, etc.

Along with bite avoidance measures, antimalarials (sometimes known as prophylaxis or chemoprophylaxis) are required every time you travel to a malarious area.

Antimalarials tend to be 90 – 100% effective, but must always be used with bite avoidance measures such as insect repellent and mosquito netting. All antimalarials need to be taken before, during, and after your travels to ensure they give protection against malaria. It is essential that you take antimalarials as instructed and complete the course.

In some areas of the world, the malaria parasite has developed resistance to some antimalarial medications. This is why you need to attend an appointment before you can be given a prescription.

Antimalarials are not on NHS prescription so your prescription will be a private one. You will have to pay at the chemist when you collect your drugs.

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