Travel health update 

This month’s news includes important updates about travel to the Winter Olympics, warnings about matching international certificates of vaccination to passport details, and resources for mosquito bite prevention advice

WINTER TRAVEL

With the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games approaching in South Korea later this month and into March, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has posted useful information. See resources at https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/news/293/south-korea-olympic-and-paralympic-winter-games. Vaccine advice would include making sure a traveller is up to date on MMR, having received two doses and if not, ImmForm stock can be used in general practice to administer to the traveller on the NHS – see http://janechiodini.blogspot. co.uk/2017/12/mmr-clarification-on-use-of-vaccine-for.html. Travellers will also be going to China for the fast approaching Chinese New Year. Public Health England produced two infographics last year which remain useful regarding prevention of Avian flu in China, one in English and one in simplified Chinese: see https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/avian-influenza-advice-for-travellers-to-china.

ICVP & LGBT

TravelHealthPro posted a new factsheet on their site on 1 February with the key message: Transgender and transsexual travellers may encounter difficulties at borders if details relating to their gender and/or current name on their International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) for polio vaccine or yellow fever vaccine do not match their passport.

A British citizen would need to change their passport if their name and/or their gender has changed, if they are travelling under a name not matching documentation on the passport. More information is available at https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/ factsheet/81/lgbt-travellers-changes-to-vaccine-certificates. From a travel health perspective, there would also be a problem if the traveller had an ICVP with a name that does not match that on the passport. Guidance is therefore given from NaTHNaC that if an original ICVP has been subject to name change for any reason, including gender re-alignment, and where an accurate medical record of the previous vaccination can be seen, a health professional at a Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre can issue a replacement ICVP for yellow fever vaccine. This would also apply to a polio vaccine ICVPs.

MOSQUITO BITE PREVENTION

As the holiday season approaches, increased number of travel appointments may affect your work. So many diseases are mosquito borne and while we have vaccines to prevent some, e.g. yellow fever, for many, the mainstay of prevention is mosquito bite avoidance. In December 2017, TravelHealthPro posted a news item regarding a review of countries where Dengue is a risk and added nine more countries. See https://travelhealthpro.org.uk /news/285/country-specific-dengue-recommendations-2017. How much do our travellers understand about bite prevention and how much time do we have to go into any detail? A helpful leaflet to give to travellers can be found at https://www.gov. uk/government/publications/mosquito-bite-avoidance-for-travellers but I’ve also made a booklet that may help give more detailed information and perhaps it could be something you allow them to look at while you’re preparing the vaccines. I’ve posted it on my traveller resources page at http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/help/tar/ with additional detail at http://janechiodini. blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/mosquito-bite-prevention-advice.html

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

We’re approaching that time again when many meetings and educational opportunities are announced. The BGTHA has an online course for travel health, currently offered at an introductory price of £70: see https://www.abcoftravelhealth. com/. The course is intended as an introduction or refresher for doctors, nurses and pharmacists who may not wish or be able to take part in other training courses. It can be undertaken in your own time and at your own pace on computer, tablet or smartphone. It consists of 10 mini-courses, which can be undertaken in any order. These cover Information Gathering, Risk Assessment, Prevention of Illness in Travellers including Vaccinations and Malaria Prophylaxis, Travellers with Special Needs, Managing Illness Abroad and on Return, and Setting up and Running a Travel Clinic both in the NHS and privately. The BGTHA is also involved in a joint conference with the Faculty of Travel Medicine in Leicester on 3 March: see https://rcpsg.ac.uk/events/bgtha. My own training with new course dates can be found at http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/ education/ and I’ve recently updated Malaria Matters again – see http://janechiodini.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/malaria-matters-little-history.html