Travel health update

There are many ways of increasing and testing your knowledge of travel health medicine. Jane Chiodini signposts educational resources, news updates and forthcoming meetings to help you keep at the top of your game

IMMUNISATION RESOURCES

To offer travel health vaccinations, you should be up to speed on the National Immunisation programmes and therefore also familiar with the guidance Immunisation against infectious disease – The Green Book. For those unaware, you can check your knowledge with a multiple choice test on all chapters of the Green Book. This has been available for some time, but was updated in January 2017. Access the knowledge test at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immunisation-knowledge-test-for-professionals where you will also find details of how you can obtain the answers as well! Other training resources for immunisation, including a knowledge assessment of UK immunisation policy and practice and useful immunology videos, are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/health-protection-training. Skills for Health hosts an immunisation and vaccination course which was fully updated in December 2016. This eLearning course meets the mandatory requirements of the National Minimum Standards for Immunisation Training. The duration of the learning is approximately 10 hours and although not free of charge, at £11 represents excellent value for money. For further details, see skillsplatform.org

TRAVEL VACCINE ISSUES

A number of changes have happened in the world of travel vaccine manufacturers, with new suppliers entering the market place, including PaxVax, Valneva and most recently Pfizer. At the end of December 2016, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, one of the major providers alongside GlaxoSmithKline, split into two – Sanofi Pasteur and MSD, with each taking a selection of their vaccine portfolios with them. To know what comes from where, I’ve added the information onto my website as an FAQ – see number 6 at http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/news/faqs/

A number of vaccines shortages continue with more potential problems to come. The databases TRAVAX and NaTHNaC keep an update on the progress of these issues so keep watching for further news and of course the manufacturers themselves are able to update customers. Again details of all the companies are available on the FAQ.

NEW APP FOR TRAVELLERS

KAYG (Know as you go) is a new app developed for travellers with the content written and updated by Dr Fiona Taylor, a GP who works in a large practice in Glasgow seeing many students and who has undertaken formal training in travel medicine. The content is designed with a focus on UK based advice. The app is free of charge to download, and gives the user up to date country information and advice, vaccine recommendations, advice on non vaccine preventable diseases including malaria, emergency numbers and consular contact details for countries, and live alerts on important country updates as the traveller journeys. Payment of a small fee of £3.99 (£6.99 for a family) can be made to access personalised travel and health advice for each country, and an interactive vaccine record with reminders. To access, go to http://www.knowasyougo.com/ . The home page includes a video demonstration of the app’s features.

TRAVEL MEDICINE MEETINGS

Look out for upcoming events in the next few months. In March, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Faculty of Travel Medicine are holding a meeting entitled ‘Providing a travel health service in 2017’ to be held at the RPS in London on 18 March 2017. The very interesting programme and further details can be found at http://www.rpharms.com/conferences/travel-medicine.asp. If you’re very interested in travel medicine, then no meeting could be more exciting that the biennial meeting of the International Society of Travel Medicine in Barcelona 14–18 May 2017. I shall be co-hosting a workshop there on risk communication but hoping to learn a lot of new information myself. For more detail see http://www.istm.org/cistm15. Finally, on 24 June the RCN Public Health Forum and NaTHNaC are joining forces to run a conference entitled ‘Travel Health Competence: Pointing you in the right direction’. The programme has yet to be announced but details will be made available at https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/events/travel-health-conference when finalised.