Travel vaccines: information for health care workers

Travel and volume of passengers and goods carried continue to expand in reach as more sophisticated air, sea and land transport networks develop. People are travelling for business and leisure, taking with them pathogens and their vectors bringing about diseases such as the global influenza pandemics. This review briefly examines some of the important vaccine preventable diseases related to travel. We then outline diseases known to Africa and other similar parts of the world, and potential approaches for preventing these conditions. The paper provides practical advice for health care workers when consulting with the international traveler and hence may strengthen the battle against vaccine preventable diseases.