Travel health update

Travel risk assessment forms; Changes to useful website addresses make them hard to find; New developments at NaTHNaC; Travel medicine meeting

TRAVEL RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS

The risk assessment and risk management forms available in the RCN competency document ‘Travel health nursing: career and competence development’, have recently been reproduced as a tear off pad, funded by Norgine Pharmaceuticals Limited, the manufacturers of Xifaxanta (rifaximin), which is licensed for the treatment of travellers’ diarrhoea. The forms enable travellers to provide detailed information prior to the travel consultation, on their current health status, destination and previous use of malaria prophylaxis, for example. The forms also serve as a detailed and comprehensive record of the travel consultation. The tear off pad is available for nurses undertaking travel consultations in primary care settings. For further details, contact your local account manager or telephone Norgine, 01895 826606

ALL CHANGE FOR URLs

Have you noticed that many favourite websites have now moved? The portal for all government websites is now www.gov.uk with the department, Public Health England being the home for resources such as the Green Book, Vaccine Update and ImmForm. My favourite site www.immunisation.nhs.uk is closing down and currently finding information on the GOV.UK can be a challenge, perhaps most effectively done by performing a search on the topic required. I am sure with time it will all settle but web addresses at present are long, for example for the Green Book is accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england/series/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book

To make life easier in travel health, look on the links page of my website where I will endeavour to update the changes as soon as I find them http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/links/. I’ve also created a page called ‘help’ found at http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/news/help/. On here I intend to provide all the links by topic. The first one is on Immunisation resources, which includes items such as the vaccination timeline, the quick chart of vaccine-preventable disease terms in 16 different languages, immunology videos etc.

• Jane’s efforts to unravel the new Government portal are much appreciated – a search for ‘infectious diseases’ resulted in, among other things, 'How to report a stranded whale or dolphin', and a search for ‘Green Book’ produced the message, ‘Sorry, we are experiencing technical difficulties'. Editor

NEW DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN NaTHNaC

Following a review of the NaTHNaC advice line and in response to feedback received, the times of the phoneline have changed from 10 April 2013. The new times are Monday to Friday 0830 – 1145 and 1300 – 1515, (excluding Bank Holidays when the line is closed). Remember this advice line should be used for complex queries only. Before calling it’s always a good idea to check on www.nathnac.org on the FAQ section, in the information sheets and also in the publication ‘Health Information for Overseas Travel’ also known in the UK as the Yellow Book – you may well find the answer to your query in these resources, which will ultimately save you time. All practices ought to have a copy of the ‘Yellow Book’ as a key resource in travel health. NaTHNaC is now supplying the publication free of charge while remaining stocks last, plus £7.20 for postage and packaging for UK delivery. For further details go to http://www.nathnac.org/pro/news/yb_free_copy_270313.htm or telephone NaTHNaC’s distribtuion centre on 0191 203 2329 to order a copy.

RSTMH & NaTHNaC conference

The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH) and the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) are organising a very interesting one day travel medicine meeting; Developments in Travel Medicine on Thursday 27 June 2013 in central London. See http://www.rstmh.org/developments%20in%20travel%20medicine for further details.