Travel Clinic

Millions of people travel every year to destinations where they are exposed to health risks they do not experience at home. These include traveler’s diarrhea, malaria, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, high altitude sickness, and many, many others. There are also many more common questions that arise during travel such as how to deal with jet lag, when to take medications, or how safe public transportation is on arrival. Travel experts report that as much as 40% of travelers experience some illness while traveling. You can have a safer, healthier trip by contacting the BWH Travel Clinic for an appointment that should be more than two weeks prior to your departure.

The BWH Travel Clinic provides complete travel medicine consultation for adult patients. Services include:

• All necessary and required pre-travel immunizations—including the more difficult to obtain vaccines like yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, as well as more common immunizations like hepatitis A. Patients will receive the PHS 731 form required for entry in to some countries.
• Advice and prescriptions for avoiding infectious diseases while traveling—including malaria prophylaxis, traveler’s diarrhea and others.
• Advice and prescriptions for environmental risks—including high altitude travel.
• Advice for travelers with particular needs—including diabetics, pregnant travelers, travelers taking medications that may impact travel risk (such as diuretics or proton pump inhibitors) and others.
• Advice on routine travel matters—including insurance, jet lag and security concerns.
• Advice for the traveler who returns with an illness.