Safe Travel Preparation for HIV-Infected Patients

Infectious diseases are a risk when traveling internationally, and it is important to know the potential disease burden of a region and take appropriate preventative actions before traveling. For individuals with HIV, there are special considerations and contradictions for various vaccines and medications as well as interactions with likely antiviral drugs. The purpose of this review is to summarize the vaccine and medication recommendations for travelers with HIV infection. We also review recent studies to update these recommendations.

The recommendation for yellow fever vaccine has changed in June of 2016, and it is now a once in a lifetime vaccine instead of being given every 10 years. A new cholera vaccine, Vaxchora™ was approved in 2016. Since it is a live vaccine, its impact on immunocompromised individuals is still not fully known. A recent study found that immunocompromised patients responded well to the hepatitis A vaccine, although acquiring immunity may take longer than in non-immunocompromised people. There are some new anti-viral medicines that need to be considered with interactions for other travel medicines, in particular, the anti-malaria drugs. This review provides current knowledge on how HIV-infected and immunocompromised persons respond to medications and vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases in travelers. These recommendations will be useful to recommend safer travel for the HIV-infected patient. Some newer vaccines and medications will need further evaluation and assessment to determine safety and impact on HIV-positive travelers.