Travel Medicine - Services - Before You Leave

The Consultation

One of our experts in travel medicine will provide an assessment of your health risk and advise you on precautions for your trip. The assessment will be drawn from our collective expertise in international public health, tropical medicine and infectious diseases. It is also guided by our continual access to current health alerts from around the world.

The consultation allows the doctor to get to know more about you and the journey you are about to embark on. The recommendations are specific to your requirements as every journey is unique and so are the specific health risks posed to the individual traveller. This is why the vaccinations, anti-malarial medication, medical kits, travel health products and educational aspects that are discussed and considered, are tailored to your individual situation.

Vaccinations

We keep on-site a complete range of routine and specific vaccinations. Routine vaccinations for travel are those which are already on the national immunisation schedule for both children and adults. If you have not been covered for these, vaccination prior to travel is important. Specific vaccinations are those which relate to particular diseases that may occur at destinations you are visiting. They usually relate to medium to high risk locations where certain infectious diseases are prevalent. Yellow Fever is one of a number of specific vaccinations; others include Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Meningitis ACYW, Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis. As a World Health Organization authorised Yellow Fever vaccination centre, we are part of a select group of centres where this vaccine can be administered.

The decision to receive routine and/ or specific vaccinations is based on a number of factors, and the doctor will discuss these factors with you.

Anti-malarial medication

Many regions of the world are endemic for malaria but malaria risk within countries may vary considerably. Prescribing medication for prevention or treatment requires a careful assessment. The doctor needs to consider a number of issues, in particular your actual risk of exposure – area of travel, time of year, length of time - as well as the best choice of drug for you (e.g. potential side effects, cost etc). Education about the disease and recognition of symptoms is very important. Based on a malaria risk assessment conducted during the consultation, our doctors can prescribe and supply you with the suitable anti-malarial medication for your trip.

Education

Our experts consider education as the essential 'ingredient' in the practice of travel medicine. This is why we place a priority on educating you about key health risks relevant to your journey and how to prevent them. This includes ensuring you have an understanding of relevant diseases and common travel health issues which pose the greatest risk to you (e.g. traveller’s diarrhoea). We will educate you about how each disease and condition is caused and how to identify common symptoms. We will also teach you how to use appropriate medications such as anti-malarials or those included in a medical kit e.g. to treat diarrhoea.

To learn about how we assist you while you're away, please click here