News from the travel health trenches

Things are quiet, but we are seeing a few travellers – mostly for work trips : Fly in Fly out (FIFO) workers are doing 3 months swings, patients going to help PNG with their vaccine rollout or medical care, but mostly travellers are going to ‘fix things’ – problems, machinery and software

Travellers need a negative COVID test to board a flight, or on arrival in certain countries – regulations are changing all the time and both industry and travellers alike are finding it hard to keep up.

The Federal government has still has not authorised specialised vaccination centres such as ours to give any COVID vaccine (in the midst of the greatest vaccine challenge Australia has ever faced??)

Check here to see if you are in the eligible group for COVID vaccine now. I  recommend making time to go and get vaccinated. Plan to have a quiet day the day or two after in case it do If COVID gets in, (as it has done in Taiwan) there will be a stampede to be vaccinated. Vaccines do take a while to take effect. Opening Australian’s doors to the world won’t happen until most of our citizens have been vaccinated.

Our clinic has just launched our next research project. We are seeking volunteers from 18-45 years age who would like to help. We are investigating if having 1/5 of the normal dose of the registered Japanese encephalitis vaccine will be just as effective as the ‘normal dose’. All evidence so far suggests it will be. This would make the vaccine cheaper and less painful. If you might like to help, more information is at this link.

Influenza cases in Brisbane are currently low, but it is still a good idea to get your influenza vaccine – there is nothing worse than looking like you have COVID. Flu vaccines in our clinic cost $12 plus your medicare card. Click here to make an appointment.

Great news that recent media reports that Australian travellers are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before departure.  The government website also confirms this.

That’s all for now, Thank you for your support, and stay safe, Regards Dr Deb