Author Archive

All about Japanese Encephalitis

Dr Chris Rook Adelaide Member TMA
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a viral disease that can damage the brain and is transmitted by mosquitoes. It is the most common vaccine-preventable cause of epidemic encephalitis world-wide with most cases occurring in Asia. It was first identified in 1935 and it is estimated there are more than 30- 50,000 cases and 10,000 deaths annually. It has recently been reported in Australia  Read on for more information

• Posted on February 13, 2023
• Posted in Adelaide, Vaccine

Are you protected against yellow fever?

by Dr Alan Leeb,  Ballajura

As we emerge from the acute Covid era and the world gets moving once again, it is a timely reminder about the diseases we may be exposed to overseas and the vaccinations that are required when travelling to certain destinations.

Yellow fever is prevalent in many areas of Africa and Central and South America. It is a serious disease that is transmitted by infected mosquitos.

So named because it causes the skin to turn yellow or jaundiced in severe cases, yellow fever is estimated to cause 30,000 deaths each year.

• Posted on February 6, 2023
• Posted in Ballajura

Vaccines at home, and trip to Sri Lanka

Mark Sweet TMA member Surrey Hills VIC

International travel has been severely curtailed as a result of Covid19. But there are still many reasons that you may want to consult a travel clinic. The TMA doctors are experts in immunisation and some of the TMA clinics are involved in pre-employment / pre-deployment medical assessments.
Immunisations when you are not travelling? – Yes!

• Posted on October 18, 2020
• Posted in Other, Surrey Hills
• Tags: Sri Lanka

Consider Q Fever Vaccination

 Dr Olga Ilic – GP Shepparton Travel Clinic

Q fever is a disease found within Australia – yet many Aussies have never heard of it. Despite there being an effective vaccine, Q Fever continues to cause illness and suffering.

Q fever most commonly causes an illness resembling the flu. Symptoms may include high fevers, joint and muscle aches, headaches, and extreme fatigue and may last many weeks. Sometimes, more severe illness including heart disease, pneumonia, hepatitis and persistent profound fatigue can occur. Often diagnosis is difficult and the costs of health care may be high.

• Posted on September 10, 2020
• Posted in Disease, Other

Lessons from Peru

Dr Joan Chamberlain TMA member Rockhampton

Yes, yes I know we can’t travel overseas presently, but true travellers will still have passports, suitcases, and travel wish list handy. I recently had 2 comments that reflected this.

Lady early in the day, “You will never get me travelling again, it is just too dangerous, especially those cruises”.

Gentleman later the same day, “You know I have my next cruise booked. I cannot wait to get travelling again.”

Pick the traveller.

Last year on the 26th December 2019 we left to go to South America. This was the last big combined family holiday before the clan begins to break away, settle and possibly start to have families of their own. We chose South America as our children, Hubby and I have always wanted to travel to South America and particularly to see Machu Picchu and to visit the Galapagos Islands. So, we did, and now in retrospect, our timing could not have been better, arriving back in Oz on 25th January 2020, as the world was starting to spin out of control.

• Posted on August 2, 2020
• Posted in Rockhampton

The Australian Quarantine Experience – Doctors perspective

Dr Jo-Anne Grey
MBBS FRACGP MPH DTMH CTH®

TMA member based in Melbourne

Since the bottom fell out of international travel with the global spread of the SARS-CoV2 and the subsequent declaration of the pandemic by the WHO, my life as a day-to-day travel medicine practitioner has changed dramatically.  As part of the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 response workforce, I now spend my days in Melbourne’s quarantine hotels, conducting telehealth consultations with returned travellers in their hotel rooms and donning and doffing PPE to make “house calls” to rooms where necessary.

• Posted on June 20, 2020
• Posted in Brisbane, Disease
• Tags: COVID-19

Covid-19 and cruising

Dr Stanley Khoo, TMA member
Travel Medicine Centre Perth

The fresh sea air, the relaxing motion of the ocean, the high staff to passenger ratio, these are some of the many factors that have attracted people to cruise travel. Some destinations such as the Arctic and the Antarctic can only be accessible by boat, and sometimes a cruise ship with its remarkable facilities is the destination itself; a miniature city of restaurants, cinemas, concerts, casinos, night clubs and swimming pools, with a plethora of entertainment opportunities and unlimited food and drink.

• Posted on June 8, 2020
• Posted in Other, Perth
• Tags: COVID-19

Aeroplanes parked in the desert….

Dr John Kenafake – Sunshine Coast Dive & Travel Medicine

Aeroplanes parked in the desert -?It doesn’t bode well for international travel.

Welcome to the travel blog you’re having when you’re not travelling. I will deliberately NOT use the “C “ word [that’s Covid] much as we are all inundated with information on the dastardly virus. Besides, anything I write will probably be out of date by the time this is uploaded.

• Posted on May 13, 2020
• Posted in Sunshine Coast
• Tags: COVID-19

To take or not to take. That is the question.

Dr Catherine Meehan.  McLeod St Medical  Cairns

To Be or Not to Be

Travel vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis.  To take or not to take. That is the question.

• Posted on February 28, 2020
• Posted in Cairns

Going Home To Visit Grandma

Dr Chris Davenport , TMA Boronia

It’s Monday morning, another busy day in General Practice filled with the usual interesting patients – for blood pressure reviews, medication repeats, women’s health discussions and children with the latest coughs and colds.

• Posted on February 20, 2020
• Posted in Boronia