Travel health: resources to support clinical decisions

SPS resources

SPS has advice on Choosing a medicine to delay periods (SPS page).

For information on travel vaccines, in addition to the resources listed, see Vaccines and immunisation: resources for answering questions (SPS page)

Other resources

In addition to our own resources, we recommend the following resources that are free to access:

Local formulary or guidelines

Your local Area Prescribing Committee, Medicines Management Group or similar body may have relevant guidelines or documents. For example, guidance on prescribing medication for patients travelling or living abroad.

In secondary care, consult Trust policies and guidance.

Travel Health Pro

Travel Health Pro is provided by NaTHNaC (National Travel Health Network and Centre) for travellers and healthcare professionals in the UK. It includes:

• Country-specific information providing advice on malaria and other risks, antimalarial and vaccine recommendations
• Topics in brief covering a wide variety such as altitude illness (which includes information on prophylactic acetazolamide), Ebola disease, Mpox and Zika virus
• Factsheets and resources grouped by category: infectious diseases, preparing for healthy travel (including information on travelling with medicines), special risk travel (such as Hajj and Umrah, cruises and travelling to visit friends and relatives), special risk travellers (including a wide range of medical conditions such as coagulation disorders, diabetes, immunosuppression, respiratory conditions, travel with a stoma), and clinic resources
• News articles which can be filtered by country, topic or date

Clinical Knowledge Summaries

There are several Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) topics relating to travel. These include:

• Diarrhoea-prevention and advice for travellers – covering risk, preventative advice and when to consider ‘stand-by’ antibiotics
• DVT prevention for travellers – covering risk assessment, preventative advice and information regarding compression stocking use and anticoagulant prescribing
• Sleep disorders – shift work and jet lag – covering sources of information and support, and advice for short or longer travel stays

NHS website

The NHS website has information on travel-related topics such as:

• Storing and travelling with insulin
• Altitude sickness
• Jet lag

To find the information you want, go to the Health A-Z or use the search box.

UKHSA malaria guidelines

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Malaria Expert Advisory Group publishes malaria prevention guidelines for travellers from the UK.

The guidelines are presented as a long pdf document. Content is largely reflected in Travel Health Pro, but the guidelines contain more detailed information around malaria prevention and includes additional advice on:

• special groups (such as travellers with acute porphyria)
• special categories (such as stopovers, travel to oil rigs, long-term travel)
• frequently asked questions (including antimalarial choice in epilepsy, G6DP deficiency, with anticoagulants and maximum duration of chemoprophylaxis)

Click on the heading in the contents page to find the section you need.

Consult these guidelines if you need more detail than provided by Travel Health Pro. Or if Travel Health Pro does not cover the situation or patient group you need.

Further advice

NaTHNaC advice line

This advice line for health professionals is provided by NaTHNaC to help answer travel-related questions involving complex itineraries or travellers with special health needs. Before calling, users must have first checked resources, including Travel Health Pro, and have all relevant background information available.

SPS Medicines Advice Service

If the information is not available on the SPS website or the information resources listed, or if your clinical scenario is complex. We would suggest you seek further advice from our Medicines Advice Service (SPS page). This service is available for healthcare professionals working in NHS primary care (including community pharmacy) in England.

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