For some reason, friends are trusted more than the web (Travel Health Websites in general)

Member Name: mgoldman

Product:	Travel Health Websites in general
Date:	29/05/03 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: comprehensive, find stuff that is not in the books

Disadvantages: open to abuse, lunatic fringe is out there

When I was doing my research for my masters in travel health, one of the things I asked all of the patients in my study (on antimalarial safety) was where they got their information from. I was surprised to learn that about half of travel health information was gained from word of mouth from friends. It is no surprise that 48% of travellers report that they experienced some form of travel related illness.
I have built up a good favourites list of reliable travel health web sites, and it needs to be said that there are some very good ones out there, that do not border on the paranoid.
My favourite is travax www.travax.scot.nhs.uk . However, this is only available to subscribers, but there is a cut down version available to the public on http://www.fitfortravel.scot.nhs.uk/.
These give a UK perspective.
If you are prepared to accept a more international perspective, then the WHO and CDC websites are excellent. However, as not all medications are available in all countries, it can be confusing.
http://www.doh.gov.uk/hat/emerg.htm is an official UK based site from the department of health, and is probably well worth consulting for up to date information about outbreaks.

I am a great advocate for Lariam. Most people do not share my views, and if you want to look at some other perspectives then go to http://lariaminfo.homestead.com/

I also made use of http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/larrefs.html

I think you will get the message that there is good balanced information out there, and if you know how to search the web properly and evaluate the veracity of information, it is probably the best place to look

If anyone can tell me how to email a list of favourites, I will email mine to them (I use IE5).

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