Rabies is one of the most serious infections in travel health medicine, yet surprisingly one of the most neglected. For UK travellers heading abroad, the risk is often dismissed as unnecessary or something that “only happens to other people.” But rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear and recent real-life cases show that complacency […]
When people hear that I am a travel health nurse, they often imagine me travelling to every country in the world administering vaccinations, while lounging on a beach, catching a tan. However, my work is much more dynamic and varied than that and I am certainly not lounging on a beach administering vaccinations to people. […]
If you’re a practice nurse, healthcare support worker, pharmacist or anyone who works in immunisation, and you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the ever-evolving UK vaccine schedule changes… let’s just start with this: you’re absolutely not alone. Keeping up is proving tough for all of us. New vaccines. Revised eligibility. Tweaked timings. Shifting advice depending […]
The world of travel health has just gotten a little more exciting with the recent approval in the UK of IXCHIQ®, the first-ever vaccine designed to protect adults against the debilitating Chikungunya virus. This ground-breaking development, marks a crucial step forward in safeguarding travellers and individuals in endemic regions. What is Chikungunya? Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne […]
Delegation in healthcare is a valuable practice that allows the workload to be shared among a team. However, when it comes to injections—particularly in the context of childhood immunisations and travel health—delegation requires careful consideration, especially when the person administering the injection has not conducted a risk assessment themselves. Page 20 of the RCN immunisation […]
Travelling abroad provides valuable opportunities to explore new perspectives, cultures and experiences. However, for individuals managing chronic conditions, venturing far from home can bring unique challenges and uncertainties. Planning for travel when you have a long-term health condition involves extra considerations. Yet, with careful preparation and informed decisions, travellers with chronic conditions can embark on […]
Dengue (sometimes known as breakbone fever) is a viral infection caused by the dengue virus (DENV), a mosquito-borne flaviviruses which is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. The dengue virus has four different serotypes: DENV 1, DENV 2, DENV 3, and DENV 4. Whilst human infection is often asymptomatic […]
No-one likes injecting children and it’s always a challenge making sure they have adequate information that they and their caregivers understand. Children present in a wide range of maturity levels, and consequently with a wide range of needs and tolerances. Injecting moving targets is never easy. And to make it even harder, once they get […]
For many travel health practitioners, trying to structure their consultations within a relative short timeframe can be a challenging and daunting task, especially if their traveller presents with a complicated medical history or are within a high-risk criterion. But what can we do to ensure that our travel health consultations run smoothly and in a […]
Those of you who have done a Travel Health course delivered by me will probably have heard me recount the post-exposure rabies story from my South Africa trip when I’m discussing how to approach the question of ‘what vaccines do I need?’. I tell the story because it is a very fitting example for: Potential risks have […]
