Travel Clinic Advice for Volunteers

If you’re going on a gap year or doing a voluntary project abroad, the travel clinic should be the first stop on your journey.

Volunteering abroad can range from helping out in crisis situations to building mountain bike trails and doing environmental projects. Many such projects will take you to developing countries or sub tropical regions where the risks of infection can be higher. Whether it’s teaching in Africa or working as a professional volunteer providing aid after natural disasters, safeguarding your own well being is crucial: make sure you’ve booked an appointment at a travel clinic before you fly.

Travel Clinic: Vaccinations

If you are taking a Gap Year and are volunteering abroad, the chances are you’ll have plenty of preparation time. Go to your travel clinic ideally 8 weeks before you fly to ensure the vaccinations are functional for your arrival. Around 200,000 teenagers travel on Gap Years each year and despite the odd horror story, most have the best experience of their lives. Make sure you reduce the risk of being one of the horror stories by safeguarding your health at your nearest travel clinic before you fly; a little preparation can save you from a lot of grief. With some thought and planning, you can ensure your Gap Year is one to remember for the right reasons. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office states falling ill amongst the most common of problems experienced by teen travellers, next to being mugged and missing flights.

Travel Clinics: Preparation is Key

Wherever you plan to go in the world – you may be even going all the way round the world – you should visit your local travel clinic and make sure you know the risks and take the appropriate vaccinations. Different malaria tablets are subscribed by your travel clinic for low risk (such as Egypt and India) and high risk countries (such as Gambia and Cambodia), your travel clinic will advise you on the time-scales of taking the relevant pills if you’re travelling across different countries. As a travel clinic will tell you, taking the pills and following the instructions carefully is the biggest thing you can do to protect yourself from malaria, but other precautions such as mosquito nets, long sleeved clothing at dusk and repellent should be adhered to as well.

Take Precautions

Other vaccinations at your travel clinic include immunizing against tuberculosis and yellow fever – which are endemic in some countries. STDs and Hepatitis B are also more prevalent in some countries and precautions such as safe sex and sterile first aid kits should be taken. Avoiding undercooked food or contaminated water will help safeguard against more common problems such as diarrhoea; stick to bottled water and tea and coffee where water has been boiled.
If you are a professional volunteer and part of an emergency rescue or aid team, you should be regularly in touch with your travel clinic to ensure you are prepared in advance and ready to go. Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccines from your travel clinic are necessary if you are an intrepid or adventurous traveller and you are not able to be careful about food or water hygiene.

Choose CityDoc for all your Travel Clinic needs

At CityDoc, you can book over the phone or walk into one of our travel clinics for a same-day appointment. Don't travel abroad without ensuring that you've had the right vaccinations. CityDoc provides a complete travel clinic service, customized to your individual needs. Our pre-travel consultations are with experienced General Practitioners who will assess the impact of any pre-existing chronic medical conditions on your vaccine requirements. We have the full range of travel vaccines in stock including rarer vaccines such as Japanese Encephalitis. CityDoc is a registered yellow fever centre and is able to dispense anti-malarials directly from our in house pharmacy for your added convenience. Choose from our three travel clinic locations in London and Birmingham for ease of access.