BMJ 1995;311:265 (22 July)

Letters

Vaccinations for travellers

EDITOR,--There is widespread concern that many travellers to tropical countries are not adequately protected against malaria. Either a public health message about the hazards of such travel has never reached them, or they have chosen to disregard it. Vivien Hollyoak is concerned that new regulations preventing the prescription of prophylactic antimalarial drugs on the NHS will worsen this situation.1 I hope that general practitioners will not use the change to milk an unjustified additional private prescription fee (average cost pounds sterling6) from all travellers as Hollyoak assumes. Nevertheless, for travellers using mefloquine, and particularly for longer trips, prophylaxis now costs much more.

The new regulations are evidently driven by the need to contain drug budgets, but the decision to charge for prophylactic drugs while general practitioners continue to be reimbursed for the cost of travel vaccines is curious. Almost all travellers to exotic places are offered two modern expensive vaccines . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Prophylaxis against malaria
Vivien Hollyoak
BMJ 1995 310: 1329. [Extract] [Full Text]




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