The guidelines and regulations for vaccines and medications needed vary greatly from one destination to another, and not receiving the correct vaccines could be life threatening. To ensure the highest degree of accuracy and safety, the Center for Disease Control recommends seeing a doctor specializing in travel medicine. Usually, this means a visit to a travel clinic.

First thing’s first; What is a travel clinic? It is a medical center that focuses specifically on the preventive care of those who plan to travel internationally. Patients generally visit a travel clinic for a consultation and vaccination, and then again after their return for a well-being check-up.

Some people may be curious about why visiting a travel clinic would be better than visiting your family doctor. The simplest answer is that, while family doctors are trained to treat a wide range of health problems, providers of travel health services focus only on emporiums. This means that travel doctors spend more time and effort getting up-to-date information on travel-specific health problems of the location they need, and since the focus of travel health is largely educating the traveler the prevention of diseases, the more knowledgeable your doctor, the more you will learn. In addition, travel clinics have all the vaccines you need in existence, while family doctors do not always have vaccines against more rare diseases such as yellow fever or typhoid fever in your hand. Travel clinics can also provide you with the yellow fever certificate needed to enter certain countries that require proof of immunization. Rates for travel clinics are often competitive with those of regular doctors, and most offer night and weekend schedules and even same-day or no-appointment appointments to accommodate travelers’ busy schedules; Such flexibility is not often a practice of regular doctors.

When you visit a travel clinic, the consultation is very important. This is the time when you can ask the doctor questions and he or she will provide you with destination-specific information about the necessary precautions for you to take. It is essential that you share your specific travel itinerary with your travel health service provider, so that he or she can provide you with the most accurate information about vaccines and whether it will be necessary to take antimalarial drugs. Activity plans should also be considered, as the CDC recommends rabies vaccinations in many countries for travelers who plan to spend a lot of time outdoors or participate in camps, walks or cycling. Plans for the prevention of altitude sickness and water purification may also be necessary, depending on your destination.