Pharmacists Can Provide Travel Health Tips for Patients

Travel health is an important topic, especially during the summer months, as families plan vacations. Staying up to date with vaccines and practicing good hand hygiene are examples of health tips to prevent illness while traveling. Through medication therapy management (MTM) consults, pharmacists can provide expert advice so patients can prepare for traveling. Pharmacists play a vital role in educating patients about travel health.

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MTM and Travel Health

Pharmacist-led travel health services are an integral part of MTM. One systematic review of 9 studies found that pharmacists provide various travel health services, including vaccine administration, travel-related medications, and malaria prophylaxis.¹ Pharmacists in 5 of the studies held a Certificate in Travel Health from the International Society of Travel Medicine.¹ Additionally, pharmacists conducted pre-travel risk assessments based on patients’ travel destinations. Practice settings included supermarket chain pharmacies, independent pharmacies, travel health clinics, and community pharmacies.¹ At least 94% of patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the pharmacist-led travel health services.¹ Additionally, most studies had an acceptance rate of at least 75% for pharmacist recommendations for vaccines and travel-related medications, highlighting the vital role pharmacists play in travel health.¹

Pharmacists can provide important health tips before patients travel, such as ensuring they have an adequate supply of their medications. It is important for patients to keep medications with them during travel and not in checked bags, in case the luggage gets lost. With norovirus cases on the rise, it is critical to take precautions, especially if traveling on a cruise ship, where outbreaks are common. Norovirus is highly contagious and can cause severe diarrhea and vomiting. Handwashing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is the best way to prevent norovirus.² Although hand sanitizer is effective against many viruses, it does not work against norovirus.²

Pharmacists can also question patients about their vaccine status and determine whether they need malaria prophylaxis. The CDC travelers’ health site provides this information based on the travel destination.³ It is critical for patients to be current on their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, especially with measles outbreaks happening worldwide. The MMR recommendations for international travel align closely with areas in the US that have outbreaks. In fact, the Texas Department of State Health Services recently updated its MMR recommendations for individuals living in or visiting counties that are part of the outbreak (Table).⁴ Patients born before 1957 likely were infected with measles because the MMR was not available at that time, so these individuals typically do not need an MMR vaccine.⁴

REFERENCES

1. Kc B, Alrasheedy AA, Leggat PA, et al. Types and outcomes of pharmacist-managed travel health services: a systematic review. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2023;51:102494. doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2022.102494

2. How to prevent norovirus. CDC. January 13, 2025. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/prevention/index.html

3. Travelers’ health. CDC. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

4. Measles outbreak case definition. Texas Department of State Health Services. Updated April 10, 2025. Accessed April 28, 2025. https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-outbreak-case-definition