Travel clinics in Québec (Canada)

To continuously improve its assistance to Québec travel health providers, the Québec Advisory Committee on Travel Health conducted an exploratory and descriptive survey of dedicated travel clinics in Québec (Canada). During autumn 2003, a cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out among the 97 travel health clinics listed in Québec. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire sent by mail. The response rate was 94%. More than three quarters of travel clinics in Québec are located in community health centers; the others are in private clinics and in hospitals. Although 80% of the clinics are located outside the most densely inhabited regions of Québec, they carry out less than 30% of the total number of pretravel consultations. Almost 60% of the clinics have fewer than 500 consultations a year. Overall, more than 114,000 travel health consultations are performed annually in Québec travel health clinics. Preventive services to travelers, including the most commonly used vaccines for travelers, are available in all regions of Québec, except in the northernmost region. Smaller clinics offer fewer services to travelers in terms of antimalarial prescriptions, less common vaccines, and post-travel consultations. The main sources of information for travel health practitioners are guidelines provided by public health authorities. Data obtained provide an up-to-date portrait of the services available in travel clinics in Québec that should assist public health authorities adapt their interventions to the needs and realities of these clinics.