301 Travel Health Flashcards
What is travel health?
(Emporiatrics) a new medical specialty developed to meet health, safety and welfare needs of travellers
What is travel medicine?
Seeks to prevent illnesses and injuries occurring to travellers going abroad and manages problems arising travellers coming back
Common causes of mortality in travellers
Most: malaria
Drowning
In UK pop. overseas is ischaemic heart disease (35%) and trauma (25%)
Fatal accidents are MVAs
Contributory factors of MVAs abroad
Driving on opposite side of road (2.5x more likely to have MVA)
Tourists take greater risks overseas
Alcohol/drugs are often involved
Common causes of morbidity in travellers
Traveller’s diarrhoea (25-90% have symptoms in 1st 2 weeks), symptoms last 3-5 days and 25% alter travel plans, mostly due to E.Coli
Respiratory tract infections (13% report cold symptoms)
Malaria (incidence low but severe)
Most common vaccine-preventable conditions
Influenza and hepatitis A
Why has travel health become a thing?
Important trends in travellers are
- Number of travellers are increasing rapidly
- Changing trends in destination choice
- Changes in traveller type
What are VFRs?
Visiting friends and family
Why are VFRs important?
Spend close proximity with local population
Often complacent
Have poor perception of health risks at destination
Do not always accept travel health recommendations
Often wrongly assume immunity to tropical conditions
Only accept vaccinations are legally required
Briefly describe the UNWTO trends and discuss implications of trends on significance of travel health issues, compared to other public health concerns
- Health and safety protocols: increased hygiene & COVID-19 protocols integrate travel health with public health goals
- Wellness tourism: rising demand for health-focused trips connects travel health to mental and physical wellbeing
- Digital health: use of apps for health monitoring & vaccine verification
- Environmental health: climate impact awareness highlights disease risks, aligning travel health with global health
- Resilient policies: adaptable travel health policies enhance public health emergency preparedness
What do travel health services do?
36-52% international travellers obtain travel health advice before journey
Information sources accessed (GPs 57-75%, travel clinics 35-35%, pharmacists 0-24%)
Do pharmacists have a role in travel health?
Collect meds. and vaccines or OTC and 1st aid remedies
To check with pharmacist whether to visit GP/travel clinic
Take advantage of opening hours, location, free advice and/or purchase other travel supplies
Examples of novel pharmacy-run models
- Clinical Pharmacy International Travel Clinic (CPITC) operated by KP in Denver, USA
- Grampian Community Pharmacy Service, UK
- USC Clinic, USA
