British Airways travel clinics go on-line

British Airways has extended its travel health advice services with the launch of a new website promoting its travel clinics.

British Airways runs three travel clinics, located within BA Travel Shops in central London’s Victoria, Cheapside and Regent Street. Professional nursing staff are able to give information and advice to anyone planning to travel - by land, air or sea.

In the first six months of this year alone British Airways has witnessed an increase of 42 per cent in the number of customers walking through its travel clinics’ doors. So far this year 22,450 people have visited the three clinics for advice.

The top 10 destinations passengers are seeking health advice on this year are Kenya, Thailand, Peru, India, Ghana, Vietnam, Mexico, Malaysia, Tanzania and Zanzibar.

The new website (www.britishairways.com/travelclinics) - with a link to the airline’s dedicated health website - contains details of all the services offered by the travel clinics, including a range of over 20 vaccines, oral medications and other travel health items. It also includes handy location maps for each clinic which can easily be downloaded by users.

Lou Griffin, Manager of the British Airways Travel Clinics, believes the new website will help fulfil a growing demand amongst travellers for travel health advice. She said: "The travel health market is growing. People are travelling more widely than they did, often to higher risk areas, and their average age is increasing. People who used to go to Spain are now going to more exotic long-haul destinations like Thailand.

“The clinics are a convenient way for you to get yourself forewarned and forearmed about potential health risks overseas before you travel.

Aside from its stock of all critical vaccines, the clinics provide expert travel health advice through a team of registered nurses. Most have travelled widely in addition to undertaking training in tropical nursing and other aspects of travel health.

The nurses’ knowledge is backed by Travax, a comprehensive Internet-based health-risk database which cross references travel destinations with the latest information on possible health risks in the area, together with advice on precautions.

Also stocked is a comprehensive range of products to protect the traveller from a variety of nature's nasties, including sun screen, insect repellents, mosquito nets, diarrhoea treatment kits, first aid kits, packs of sterile syringes and even emergency dental repair kits.

According to research by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, up to two thirds of travellers to high risk areas do not seek health advice, and many foreign nationals returning home after extended periods in the UK don't realise they have lost their natural immunity to diseases such as malaria.

"There's more to travel than just making sure you've got your tickets, passport, currency and insurance. Taking the appropriate health precautions is essential and will help people get the most from their trips," added Lou.