Travel health update

Rotavirus; Travel advice available on Patient.co.uk app; Watch out for new guidelines; Autumn conference preview

ROTAVIRUS

The rotavirus vaccine schedule is now, as you know, administered in the childhood immunisation programme, with the first of two doses given to children between the ages of 6 weeks and 14 weeks and 5 days, and the second dose 4 weeks later. The UK Malaria guidelines advise against travelling to a malarious area with a baby at such a young age, but sometimes parents chose to take their babies away despite this advice. NaTHNaC have published a helpful FAQ document on rotavirus vaccine with some useful information in relation to travel. The summary of product characteristics for the rotavirus vaccine, Rotarix® does not state that there is a drug interaction with malaria chemoprophylaxis. Few vaccines for travel health purposes would be administered at such a young age, but no interval between the administration of other inactivated vaccines (for example hepatitis B) and Rotarix® needs to be observed, and BCG can be given at any time before or after the rotavirus vaccine. If a baby does not have time to complete the course before travelling – which would always be the preferred option – then receiving the rotavirus vaccine on arrival at their destination at a reliable clinic could be considered as an alternative. For further information see http://www.nathnac.org/pro/misc/Rotavirus_vaccine_FAQ.htm

MORE APPS

I wax and wane over use of the apps I’ve downloaded onto my iPhone, but think this is partly due to insufficient time. There are still only a few dedicated to travel health, however I’ve discovered an amazing number of excellent leaflets related to travel health advice on the Patient.co.uk app which is free of charge and even more details on Patient.co.uk PRO which costs £9.99, but is well worth the expenditure. EMIS users should have access to all these leaflets on their system but I don’t within my surgery. What I would like is a decision making app for topics such as malaria chemoprophylaxis or rabies vaccine – together with an iPad in a consultation, now wouldn’t that make life a lot easier! The NHS in conjunction with the BMJ group have now produced 33 excellent decision making apps on many healthcare topics which are well worth a look. Search ‘totally health ltd’ in the UK app store for more details – I need to get in touch with them and suggest a few travel related! Online details are at http://sdm.rightcare.nhs.uk/pda/

NEW DOCUMENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR OVER THE SUMMER

I had hoped this month to mention a few items before breaking up for the summer but postings on websites have been held up for a variety of reasons. Therefore look out for the following: the 2013 updated Guidelines for Malaria Prevention in Travellers from the United Kingdom – watch www.malaria-reference.co.uk; Patient Group Directions: NICE good practice guidance - watch http://www.nice.org.uk/mpc/goodpracticeguidance/PatientGroupDirections.jsp and some helpful materials regarding post exposure rabies management produced from the Public Health England rabies advice service – watch
http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Rabies/

I will of course add details of all these materials on my website so look out for news about them at http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/home/whats-new/ . I will also bring news of these and other updates in my next column in August.

AUTUMN CONFERENCES

There are two travel medicine conferences being held in October and you might consider attending either or both, depending perhaps on which part of the country you live, as they are held within two days of each other! The Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow is holding the Annual Symposium in College on Thursday 10 October 2013, and the British Global Travel Health Association is holding its annual conference on Saturday 12 October 2013. For more details go to http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/links/conferences/