Looking after the health of British traveller

HRH The Princess Royal launches new national travel centre for travel advice

The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) is being launched today by HRH the Princess Royal. The first of its kind, the Centre will provide a comprehensive public health and specialist travel health service, setting the best possible national standard for advice and guidance on travel health for healthcare professionals - protecting the health of travellers and decreasing the amount of travel related illnesses.

In 2002, the Chief Medical Officer published a report 'Getting Ahead of the Curve' which states that infectious diseases account for 41% of global disease and a significant contributory risk factor is global travel 1 . One identified action to tackle the increase of infectious diseases is to strengthen and modernise surveillance. This will enable us to: track diseases in the population, identify new infectious disease threats, design effective vaccines, spot serious outbreaks, monitor control measures and disseminate appropriate advice. The Department of Health has therefore committed itself to funding NaTHNaC to meet the health needs of British residents, whose visits abroad have increased by 8% annually and to over 59 million visits in 2002.

There are a number of organisations which provide travel health advice and disease surveillance, but information can be inconsistent as the organisations have had no concrete 'link' with each other. NaTHNaC is a 'joining up' of these organisations so there is one central, co-ordinated provider of information and advice. It brings together the main experts in travel related medicine to ensure:

• Consistent, authoritative and evidence-based national guidance to advise current policy and practice in the commercial and non-commercial sector and other existing sources of information
• Surveillance of infectious and non infectious hazards abroad and producing accessible regular outputs
• Written, accessible evidence-based guidelines for specialist conditions
• Individual specialist advice for those advising patients with complex medical cases
• Training materials and workshops for professionals delivering travel health advice
• Short term and long term research priorities
• Administration of Yellow Fever Vaccination Centres
• Quality standards and accreditation for training and travel clinics

NaTHNaC is funded by the Department of Health with oversight management by the Health Protection Agency (HPA). The administrative centre is based at The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, part of University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, and other staff are based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The travel health surveillance staff are located at the Health Protection Agency's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC). One of the first priorities has been to set up the telephone advice line for healthcare professionals and to develop specific guidelines for travellers with specific needs. The travel surveillance section will monitor global disease occurrences, develop innovative approaches to the surveillance of travel-related illness in England, and produce regular outputs of information. NaTHNaC will be the first national institution, globally, created solely for protecting traveller's health.

Dr Angus Nicoll, Director, Health Protection Agency's CDSC said: "NaTHNaC will play a vital part in the Health Protection Agency's commitment to providing an integrated approach to health protection and reducing the impact of infectious diseases in the UK. We live in a global village and recent international outbreaks such as SARS, have shown how quickly and easily imported infections can make a sudden impact within any country. "

Commenting on the new centre, Prof David Hill, (Director, National Travel Health Network and Centre) said: "Travel health is an increasing public health priority. More of us are travelling abroad, and many to high-risk areas. NaTHNaC has been set up to provide up-to-date, evidence based information for healthcare professionals who, in turn, can rest assured they are giving the best advice possible to their patients." He continues, "By joining expert forces together, we will be able to cover most infections and clinical conditions, and will have links with all European and tropical countries and every international player in travel health. What is particularly innovative about NaTHNaC is that the advice given pools the opinions of several established national centres of clinical expertise, who are in turn informed by the results of enhanced surveillance of travel risks."

-ends-

For further information, please contact Chris Colville on 020 7387 9506 or Joanne Middleton on 020 7387 9300 x5253

Notes to Editors:
1. The National Travel Health Network and Centre has several core members:

• The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust, London (which is NaTHNaC's centre and where the administrative staff are based)
• The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
• The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Malaria Reference Laboratory)
• Health Protection Agency (Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre and Malaria Reference Laboratory)
• The Department of Health (England)

2. NaTHNaC is only open to healthcare professionals and is not a general advice centre for the public.
3. The telephone advice line is 020 7380 9234 as in operational from Monday - Friday between 09.00 - 12.00. Queries are answered by specialist nurses who have medical cover on hand.
4. Ref 1: 'Getting Ahead of the Curve', (2002), CMO, Department of Health
5. The Health Protection Agency is a new independent national organisation covering
England and Wales, created on 1 April 2003. It is dedicated to protecting people's health by providing an integrated approach to health protection, and reducing the impact of infectious diseases, poisons, chemical, biological, and radiation hazards.