Travel Medicine

North Sydney General Practice is an accredited travel medicine centre, providing all travel immunisations including yellow fever.

Vaccines are most commonly required for travel to Asia and Pacific nations, Africa and South America. Typically the recommendations will include typhoid, hepatitis A and B, and boosters for tetanus and polio if these are due. Yellow fever, Meningococcal, Japanese encephalitis and rabies are required less commonly for specific high-risk areas, or for extended travel into remote areas.

It is best to visit the practice at least 6 weeks prior to travel to plan the optimal immunisation schedule, and to ensure that vaccinations have time to be effective before you travel.

Cholera vaccine

Cholera vaccine is recommended for people travelling to areas where there is currently an outbreak of cholera.

In areas where cholera is endemic, but there is not a current outbreak, the recommendation is for careful hygiene and care with ingestion of water and fresh fruit and vegetables. The vaccine used to protect against cholera is also useful for travellers diarrhea (E.coli infection), and so is frequently prescribed as a preventative for this.

The guidelines for administering yellow fever vaccine were updated in the last 12 months. There is now a more stringent protocol requiring online training for practitioners and a consent process at the time the vaccine is administered. These requirements have been met by the doctors at our practice.

We do not have vaccines for prophylaxis for a number of serious insect borne diseases and it is therefore important to use protection against insect bites, and to avoid the times of day when mosquitoes in particular are more likely to be active. For prevention of malaria, we also recommend prophylactic antibiotics to be taken before and during travel to malarious areas.

Travel kits

Available from the surgery include, among other things, medications to treat nausea and diarrhoea, oral rehydration sachets, water purification tablets and appropriate insect repellents.

Travel medicine

Is an area where it is necessary to constantly update, because of the changing face of disease across the planet, and also because of natural and political phenomena, which may affect travel plans.

Our clinical software

Provides advice on infectious diseases found in each country of the world and is updated 3 monthly. Other excellent sources include the websites for the Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation; the latter provides daily updates on disease outbreaks and political or environmental considerations that may affect travel.