Review of non-vaccine preventable diseases on TRAVAX country pages

The Travel and International Health Team have carried out a thorough and systematic review of all non-vaccine preventable disease recommendations throughout TRAVAX. The updated information and advice can be found on individual country pages.
Rationale
The majority of infections acquired as a consequence of travel are not vaccine preventable. Not all vaccines are 100% protective. Highlighting how to reduce risk of exposure to infections will help protect travellers from both non-vaccine preventable and vaccine preventable infections.
Method
Following a review of medical literature since 2008, infections in returning travellers considered to be the most noteworthy – either due to high consequences of infection or through being the most common – were identified by region.
Outcome
What was previously called the ‘Other Disease Risks to Consider’ section on TRAVAX (at the end of each country page) has been replaced by two new sections called ‘Emerging Health Risks’ and ‘Disease Prevention Advice’.

Emerging Health Risks
Novel and re-emerging infections may occur at any time, in any country. When such an infection occurs it will be highlighted in the ‘Alerts’ section of the country page. The ‘Outbreak archive’ for individual countries should be checked for recent alerts – this is unchanged.
If the risk of infection continues to pose a risk for travellers, these will be highlighted in the ‘Emerging Health Risks’ section of the country page.

Disease Prevention Advice
This section highlights the common transmission routes for travel related infections and ways to reduce the chances of exposure. Most travel related infections are acquired through the following generic routes:

• contaminated food and water
• infectious agents from respiratory secretions
• arthropods (insects, lice or ticks) bites
• unprotected sex; infected blood or body fluids
• infected water sources, soil or dust. 

Simple measures can reduce the chance of acquiring infections through these routes e.g.

• practising good food and water hygiene
• practising good respiratory hygiene
• implementing insect bite avoidance measures
• practising safe sex; avoiding exposure to blood and body fluids
• being aware of and avoiding contaminated environments.

Feedback
The TRAVAX team believe that this extensive piece of work enhances the country specific recommendations by:

• focussing on the provision of advice on reducing the risk of non-vaccine preventable infections
• prioritising the most noteworthy specific illnesses in returning travellers for that region.

Let us know what you think by contacting us: TRAVAX Webmanager.