This useful little guide provides all necessary information on such things as travel immunisations, safety concerns, specific diseases and ailments which can be contacted during world travel, advice for people with disabilities, travelling with children and pets, traffic reports and real‐time travel advice and much more. Despite being an American publication plenty of non‐US web sites are listed. The emphasis is on English language travel information for North Americans, with links from Australia, the UK and other European countries. Connor, the author, is an experienced and well‐qualified American medical librarian.
Short explanation of the anatomy of web site addresses precedes the main body of the work, with advice on using the various search engines and directories with Google coming top of the general search engines. Some specialised search engines such as MedHunt are also recommended.
Chapter two gives a list of general travel health sites including the British Airways Travel Clinics, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel site and the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health Fitfortravel site. The UK department of Health also has a good site as does the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The World Health Organisation also features as do many US sites. The next chapter deals with pre‐travel planning and covers necessary health certificates, immunisations and vaccinations and sources of medications as well as travel health insurance. Following on from this, the next section raises specific issues and concerns and deals with scenarios such as accident prevention; bus, train and car travel; children travelling alone; contraindications to travelling (such as advanced pregnancy, severe ear infections, etc); any disabilities which may cause difficulties when travelling – including the accessibility or otherwise of major airports, hotels and tourist sites; travelling abroad in order to get medical treatment; treating illness and ailments while overseas; travelling with pets and the quarantine rules which may affect them on arrival abroad; travelling for the elderly and women on their own; and last, but not least, weather reports.
The chapter that I found most interesting (if not slightly alarming) was that on the various diseases, conditions and ailments that might affect one when travelling abroad. There are web sites dealing with such topics as air rage; allergies, back problems, hypothermia and cold weather conditions; deep vein thrombosis and hemorrhagic fevers (very unpleasant!); dental problems; the ever present threat of diarrhoea; fear of flying; hepatitis, HIV and AIDS; jet lag; SARS; mad cow disease (can you believe it?); malaria; prevention of sunstroke and heat exhaustion; and yellow fever – to name but a few. Do not be put off by this information – just remember that this book is compiled and published in the USA where perceptions of medical care and standards elsewhere can tend towards the pessimistic. Having said this, the guide is a valuable source of reference for non‐Americans simply because we all travel much more extensively today and it is useful to at least be able to assess the inoculations required and ailments which might affect one, especially in more exotic parts.
There follows a helpful list of organisations concerned with safe travel and details of full text publications (mostly in PDF) that can be accessed via the web and printed out using Adobe Acrobat software. Most of these are US based, but the useful Health Advice for Travellers produced by the British Department of Health, provides a more balanced view of possible health risks and travel planning. There is also a concise medical glossary for the layperson and some suggested reading. This guide is probably worth having in a travel reference section as it does list a good many non‐US sites which would be of use to the medical profession as well as travellers, business people and tourists when planning a trip abroad. The main drawback is that only sites in the English language are listed which must, by definition, exclude a good many useful foreign ones.
