Protecting travelers against infections: immunizations and other preventive strategies

Every year thousands of Americans travel abroad and risk encountering diseases to which they are not normally exposed. With pretravel counseling from their physician, travelers can substantially reduce or eliminate the risk of many common travel-related infectious diseases. Patients should be informed about required and recommended vaccinations, chemoprophylaxis and other preventive measures, and strategies for self-treatment, should an infection arise during travel. Up-to-date travel health resources, including sites on the World Wide Web, can assist physicians in advising patients about immunizations and other preventive measures recommended for travel to endemic areas.