Health Information for Overseas Travel

Health Information for Overseas Travel was first issued in 1995 as a companion volume to the well established UK Health Departments' memorandum Immunisation against Infectious Disease (the 'Green Book'). It was well received, especially by doctors and practice nurses giving travel health advice in primary care, and is now commonly referred to as the UK 'Yellow Book'.

Since that first edition, there has been a major increase in the amount of travel­related information available both to health professionals and travellers, in books, the media and via the Internet. The origins and significance of the information are not always clear, however, and the advice may not be consistent with that usually given in the UK.

The aim of this book is therefore still relevant: to provide a concise and authoritative one­stop source of information about the common health risks to travellers and how to reduce them. It is not a statement of Government policy. It is advisory rather than prescriptive, emphasising the need to assess the risks for the individual traveller, while recognising the limitations of the data on which such assessments sometimes have to be made. Risk behaviours are also discussed, and emphasis put on measures travellers themselves can take to protect their health abroad.

Further sources of advice are provided for more specialised problems outside the scope of this book.

We have pleasure in commending the book, and thank the editors, Dr Gil Lea of the Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, and Dr Jane Leese from the Department of Health, for their work in updating the information for this edition.