Before you travel…

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A qualified travel health advisor can give you the latest information on outbreaks of disease and other important precautions to take before, during and after your trip. For a list of travel health clinics go to www.travelhealth.gc.ca or call (613) 957 8739.

Questions to ask:
1. What infectious diseases commonly occur in the region you’ll be visiting?
2. Are all your immunizations up-to-date? Are there other vaccines you should have? (see below)
3. If malaria is common in the country you will be visiting, how can you protect yourself from malaria-carrying mosquitoes?
4. Is the water quality safe, and what can be done if the water is unsafe?
5. What precautions can you take to avoid travellers’ diarrhea?
6. What medications and medical records should you take with you?

Vaccines to consider before traveling:
• Tetanus & diphtheria vaccine every ten years
• Pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine if you haven’t had a booster in adulthood
(the booster is combined with tetanus & diphtheria vaccines)
• Polio vaccine if you have not been fully immunized in childhood, or if you have not had a booster shot in the past 10 years and are travelling to an area with reported outbreaks
• Influenza vaccine annually, in the fall
• Hepatitis A & B vaccines depending on where you’ll be travelling
• Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine if you haven’t had these diseases and were not fully immunized in childhood
• Varicella (chickenpox) if you haven’t had the vaccine or the disease
(a vaccine for Shingles is not yet available in Canada)
• Pneumococcal vaccine depending on your age and health
• Meningococcal vaccine depending on where you’ll be travelling and your health
• European tick borne encephalitis vaccine depending on where you’ll be traveling
• Japanese encephalitis vaccine depending on where you’ll be travelling
• Rabies vaccine depending on where you’ll be travelling
• Typhoid vaccine depending on where you’ll be travelling
• Yellow Fever vaccine depending on where you’ll be traveling

For descriptions of these vaccine-preventable diseases visit the web site for the Public Health Agency of Canada
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tmp-pmv/236_e.html#9

For general information and recommendations on travel health visit
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tmp-pmv/info/index.html

Other sources of travel health information can be found on this web page
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/tmp-pmv/point_e.html

Get professional health advice before you travel. Your good health is worth it!