HPA urges doctors to provide more information on travel-associated illnesses UK

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 16 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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The Health Protection Agency (HPA) is urging doctors to record travel histories from patients who contract infectious diseases following foreign holidays and trips abroad, currently patient's travel histories are often not reported, which means there is an incomplete picture of the burden of travel-associated illness in the UK.

The Agency has today published a baseline report on travel-associated illnesses following the first year of operation of its new Travel Health Surveillance Section.

The THSS was established to monitor travel associated illness as part of the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC), a Department of Health initiative to promote clinical standards in travel medicine.

Dr Jane Jones, Head of the THSS which compiled the report said: "This information on patient's travel histories is essential because we can look at patterns of disease in returning travellers and use this information to give better advice to travellers. Clinicians will be better informed about the infection threats associated with specific destinations, and the measures travellers can take to protect themselves, such as vaccinations and antibiotics, as well as other more general measures such as food hygiene, safe sex and insect bite avoidance.

UK residents made nearly 60 million visits abroad during 2002, which represents a threefold increase since 1981. It is inevitable that with people travelling abroad more frequently, and also increasingly to more tropical destinations, comes the risk of travellers encountering diseases that either don't occur, or are uncommon in the UK.

Dr Jones concluded: "The Health Protection Agency already has good surveillance in place for some travel related infections such as malaria and legionnaire's disease, however the experience of SARS showed us that the threat of infectious diseases which can spread rapidly worldwide means we need to be vigilant and that it is essential we have good surveillance systems for all travel-associated illnesses. To make such surveillance systems effective we are very heavily dependent on doctors recording their patient's travel histories when they request laboratory investigations or notify diseases".

Notes to Editors

1. For further information please contact the press office on (UK) 020 8358 3002/3004.

2. Illness in England, Wales and Northern Ireland associated with Foreign Travel is published by the Health Protection Agency and can be accessed via the HPA website
http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/travel/publications.htm

3. NaTHNaC is funded by the English Department of Health, and is run by association between the HPA's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

4. NaTHNaC has a website with advice for both health professionals and the public www.nathnac.org

5. NaTHNaC provides an expert telephone travel health advice service to health professionals for complex travel problems that might include travellers with special needs or complicated travel itineraries. (020 7380 9234).

6. Advice for patients on travel medication and vaccinations is on the NaTHNaC website
http://www.nathnac.org/travellers/iba.html
or the Scottish Centre of Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) website
www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk.
A telephone number with information for the public about anti-malarial treatment (recorded message) is available on 09065 508 908.

7. Health professionals who require assistance and more specialist advice when advising travellers specifically about malaria prophylaxis can contact the HPA Malaria Reference Laboratory on 020 7636 3924

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