Travel Health Services

Some destinations (not Canada!) require vaccinations. Previously we have used Rardin Family Practice, associated with Ohio State University, which has a travel nurse. Given a destination they will look up the official recommendations regarding vaccinations and other preventive medications, such as anti-malarial pills. Recently we went to them again, and found that they fell short of our needs:

• They do not offer rabies vaccination.
• They will not write an antibiotic prescription.

The antibiotic policy is a change from a few years ago. For some destinations it's impractical (or worse) to expect the traveler to dig up a local doctor and purchase the local version of a drug, or so we think.

After checking the web, we found Travel Health Services. They are members of the International Society of Travel Medicine and local to Columbus (not a chain). We've seen them three times in the last few weeks and can highly recommend them: professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. A booklet specific to your destination is prepared prior to your first visit, and all the recommendations are reviewed with you. We learned something new; even though hepatitis B vaccination is usually discussed in the context of tattoos or sex tourism, neither one of which is our thing, it can also come up in medical care. For example, a doctor giving you a couple of stitches could nick a finger and expose you to their blood. According to Suzanne, hep B is 15 times more transmissible than HIV.

If you have any travel medicine needs or questions, we can highly recommend them.