Travel health update

The recent World Rabies Day prompted Jane Chiodini to remind general practice nurses of the importance of alerting travellers to this devastating condition, especially when visiting high risk countries. Plus NaTHNaC news and time to reflect

RABIES UPDATE

I write this the day after World Rabies Day held on 28 September each year. The Gavi Rabies Alliance has posted a wonderful page of resources at https://rabiesalliance.org/resources, which has a number of sections including FAQs and downloadable items. You can sign up here to stay up to date with the latest news about their work, new tools, and exciting awareness and advocacy campaigns aimed at driving rabies elimination globally. Rabies is a devastating disease, which should always be addressed in our travellers going to risk countries, no matter how long their trip is for. Interestingly, in the World Health Organization’s factsheet from 20 September 2023, it reminds us that ‘Rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral disease which occurs in more than 150 countries causing tens of thousands of deaths every year, mainly in Asia and Africa, 40% of whom are children under 15 years of age, and every year, more than 29 million people worldwide receive post exposure prohylaxis (PEP)’. For further details see https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rabies.

Earlier this year, I worked with the American Travel Health Nurse Association (ATHNA) https://www.athna.org/. We developed a one hour accredited course on rabies, and although it describes the pre exposure rabies vaccine schedule used in the USA, which is different to our UK guidance, for educational value alone it is worth taking this one-hour course. It provides a certificate of completion and is free of charge. See https://athna.clcmoodle.org/ to register.

NaTHNaC UPDATES, TIPS AND TRICKS!

NaTHNaC continues to enhance its website and post frequent news items. It’s always worth subscribing to their news alerts and newsletter – access via https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/news/730/new-travelhealthpro-video-tour, where you will also find a recently posted video about their upgraded website. You may already have noticed some major changes in the layout of the site, but take a look at the 3-minute video. I’m sure you’ll discover some improvements you weren’t aware of. One tip the video didn’t cover is the ability to share pages of information – so here’s a little exercise! Go into the factsheet page on dengue at https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/factsheet/13/dengue. At the top of the page, look for an icon with the word ‘share’ beside it. Click on this link and you’ll find you can share the information on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and email. The email feature may be very useful to use for your travellers.

REFLECTION AND CURRENT ACTIVITIES

You may have noticed I’ve been a bit quiet on social media of late, following some health issues, but I’m recovering now and I am excited to be able to travel with my husband to a tropical medicine conference in Chicago in mid October. I last went there 35 years ago with a toddler and baby in tow, and it’s made me reflect on how travel has changed since that time, before I even worked in the field. Before taking time ‘off sick’ I was busy writing a new travel health update for my online platform, at https://janechiodini.learnupon.com/store which was enjoyable, but this recent downtime out has enabled me to develop skills with social media posting software, which I hope to post on my FaceBook page soon. See https://www.facebook.com/TravelHealthTraining

And in another reflective activity this week, I attended the 50th anniversary gathering of my St George’s Hospital Student Nurse set. Among the 24 present of an initial 70-strong group, was Liz Bryant who is also on the Editorial Board of Practice Nurse and wrote an excellent article in the last issue on Nursing associates in general practice – a group of registered nurses now practising travel health. The day made me feel very proud to be part of this awesome group and to be a nurse!