Monday, May 16, 2011

Travel Health on your Mission Trip


As a mission, volunteer or intercountry adoption traveler, you will be exposed to more risks than the average international vacationer. Typically you will be traveling to the more remote areas of underdeveloped countries. The sanitation, food preparations and health care will be sub-standard to what you are familiar with at home. Even the most careful traveler can become ill.
Expert Support for Mission or Volunteer Coordinators,
Team Leaders and Members
When planning a mission trip, it is important to include pre-trip medical preparations in your planning and budgeting. Passport Health's Travel Medicine Specialists will review with you the immunizations required and recommended for the area you will be visiting, based on the time of year, length of stay and your activities while you are there. Passport Health utilizes advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Department of State, the world's leaders in all areas of disease, outbreaks, warnings and knowledge of immunizations. Recommendations and requirements are constantly updated. At Passport Health, we monitor these conditions daily to ensure we give the best possible information to our travelers.

Many organizations do not include the upfront costs of immunizations in their planning, or ignore them all together. Team members should be up to date on all routine adult immunizations, such as Tetanus/Diphtheria, Hepatitis A and B, Measles/Mumps/Rubella, to name a few. This is in addition to the destination-specific travel immunizations needed. It is dangerous to ignore the importance of being immunized. Don't be fooled by 'No one got sick last time we traveled there.' The immunization cost is a fraction of what it will cost if just one person becomes sick or injured.

Passport Health can tailor a program and price options that fit your groups' needs and budget. It will include the information, routine and travel immunizations, medications and specialty travel health products.

Travelers receiving immunizations from Passport Health will receive an official immunization record to keep with his or her travel documents.

Passport Health also offers hard to find specialty travel health products. Many mission groups strongly encourage their team members to consider such products as they know they are some of the best on the market and not available once they've reached their destination.

The work performed by mission and volunteer travelers all over the world is so important and the rewards so fulfilling, illness or injury should not hinder a team's or individual member's ability to complete their assignment.

Experienced coordinators know proper planning for small or large groups means working early to get team members prepared. Passport Health is your one stop travel health planning partner.
Call us today for morre information 732-345-0029 or 800-741-0504
www.passporthealthni.com