News: Travellers to exotic places risk illness by not having vaccinations

The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7160 p181-186
11 August 2001

Travellers to exotic places risk illness by not having vaccinations

Travellers are endangering their health by visiting exotic locations without having the necessary vaccines, a survey suggests. The survey involved 424 people who had travelled to “at risk” destinations (ie, those for which travel vaccination is recommended) in the past 12 months, either for a holiday or on business.

Main findings of the survey

Nearly one in five travellers are not protected by vaccines.

Half of travellers do not take basic health precautions, such as drinking bottled water.

Many travellers are unsure about what vaccinations they had had and for how long they remained protected.

The quality and level of advice given to travellers about vaccination and the consequence of contracting disease is variable.

Nearly a fifth of respondents relied on being offered advice about vaccination or did not receive any advice at all before travelling. Nearly three-quarters of those who had sought advice accepted vaccination as a result. However, 67 per cent of those vaccinated were not told to return for a booster.

Of those who received advice but were not vaccinated, 28 per cent had been told by their travel agent that they did not need to be vaccinated. Of those who had been vaccinated, 13 per cent could not remember what vaccines they had been given. However, 98 per cent of those who were given a vaccination record card had read it, the survey shows.

Basic health precautions were often not followed — 52 per cent of people surveyed had had ice in their drinks, 45 per cent had used tap water to clean their teeth (both of which could have exposed the travellers to water-borne organisms) and 28 per cent had eaten food prepared by street vendors.

The area most visited by people involved in the survey was Asia, followed by Africa, the Caribbean, the Far East and the Middle East.

Carolyn Driver, chairwoman of the British Travel Health Association says: “Too many people are still disregarding their health by not getting the vaccines and advice they need.”

(Information about travel vaccinations was published in The Pharmaceutical Journal late last year (PJ, 25 November 2000.)