Immunisation and health advice for travellers: the role of the general practitioner

Abstract

More and more travellers go to ever more widespread destinations. Diverse sources of advice exist on the protection of travellers against medical hazards encountered abroad. This study attempts to show that the General Practitioner (GP) is the best person to give pre-travel health advice on immunisation and malaria prophylaxis. A postal questionnaire was sent to all 681 GPs in the Greater Glasgow area, to assess their views on the provision of health advice for travellers; in addition we asked whether they knew about the free access to a computerised database on travel health advice (Travax) provided by the Communicable Diseases (Scotland) Unit, and what their view was of the usefulness of this service. The overwhelming majority (87%) of responding GPs felt that pre-travel health advice was best provided in the primary care setting. This group of GPs appear enthusiastic about providing health advice for travellers, in accord with the apparent preference of travellers themselves, and 85% indicated that they would find the travel health advice service a useful aid.