The importance of travel medicine goes a long way back but the recent increase in the global movement of the tourists and business travellers has increased its need and significance manifolds. Both the governments and prospective travellers are conscious to their healthcare needs and to averting of the possible cross-border spread of epidemics more than ever before. A drive to the primary or preventive and secondary medicine has become a multilateral effort and is helping both the travellers and the governments in terms of avoiding unexpected exorbitant healthcare costs. You as a prospective traveller to a foreign land are either required by the health regulations of your own country or your destination country or as a volunteer to take care of the medicines before your departure to protect yourself and those you are going to interact with during pre-and-post travel. The medical help is available to the travellers at different levels, from preventive to secondary care.
Preventive or primary medicine
The primary medicine ranges from simple advice to vaccination of the prospective travellers or arriving travellers. In the case of prospective travellers generally, local government offers advisory help on the possible health risks and precautionary measures needed. It includes environmental or climate threats and food or transport pollution-related risks. In case of risks of infectious disease pre-travel vaccinations are strongly recommended to the travellers. They can get themselves vaccinated at the public or private sector health facilities. Nowadays there are clinics offering specialised services for travel medicines in Melbourne. The frequent travellers are generally aware of these needs and facilities but new travellers are required to educate themselves on the medicines available to them thoroughly while planning their trips.
Secondary care
If you have any existing medical condition that could possibly complicate during your journey you must consult your doctor before your departure. The aggravating of your condition might not be directly linked to your travel but the disease itself and your doctor can help you with advice and medicines after a thorough examination of it. Sometimes the help requires some therapeutic solution to better prepare yourself for the journey and avoid any risk of complication. So, a visit to your doctor can give you the exact picture of your situation and this should happen as soon as you plan your trip.
Tertiary level care
Sometimes a traveller can end up in a situation when all his precautions and pre-travel medicine help does not help him avoid the complication of his medical problem during the journey or he falls ill all of sudden. In this and other such scenarios, a tertiary level travel medicine help is available to the travellers. They can be treated either as outpatients or even hospitalized. In some cases, if travellers are needed to be repatriated, all the possible medical assistance is provided to them to make sure their problems do not get serious during the travel and they are transported back to their homeland safe.