Advising your clients on a healthy holiday.

Immunisations often need to be started two or three months before departure, so advise clients to consult the practice in good time. A pre-travel health interview can be an excellent focus for health education. Parents of young children going abroad may benefit from advice on infant feeding avoiding sunburn and being up to date with immunisations. Advice on prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal infections is useful, especially for parents of young children. Giving the correct advice for malaria is particularly important. For example, many patients who formerly lived in malarious areas wrongly believe they are immune. These days more holiday makers are asking about HIV and sexual health, giving the nurse a good opportunity for health education about condoms, safer sexual practices and avoiding infection through contaminated needles and blood products.