HMC’s Travel Clinic to provide vaccinations, counselling

The Hamad Medical Corporation’s Communicable Diseases Center has opened a new clinic offering vaccinations and other preventive measures to people planning to visit overseas countries where such steps are mandatory.The Travel Clinic provides travellers with counselling, vaccinations and other preventive measures. It also offers assessment and medical care for those returning with travel-related infections.The clinic will operate on an appointment basis with people able to call and book ahead of time. Those accessing the clinic’s services will be able to attain a certificate of vaccination as well as disease prevention advice for the countries they will visit.Travellers can make appointments at the clinic by calling 40254003 from 7am to 7pm. The clinic will operate only Mondays in the interim, and will expand as demand grows. The clinic, the first of its kind in Qatar, will provide highly specialised advice and treatment for those returning from overseas trips and suspect having a travel-related illness such as persistent diarrhoea, rash and fever.The services include recommended vaccines for measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, polio, hepatitis A and B and the yearly flu shot. Some additional vaccines for yellow fever, rabies and diphtheria may also be required for travel, depending on the country being visited. Vaccinations will be free for all, unless the medication required is specialised (for example Japanese Encephalitis).“Our aim is to protect the health of travellers by providing exemplary clinical care along with specific advice and information for each traveller,” said Dr Muna al-Maslamani, medical director of the CDC. “It is important for travellers to be up-to-date with their vaccination and have their medical care optimised before they travel, particularly when there is a heightened risk of becoming sick in the country they are visiting. By providing all the necessary advice and preventive measures including vaccinations, our clinic will be a “One Stop Shop” for travellers in Qatar.”Vaccinations that will be available at the Travel Clinic include Meningococcal vaccine, rabies vaccine, typhoid vaccine, MMR vaccine, haemophilus influenza type B, diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (TdaP) vaccine, tetanus vaccine, yellow fever vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine,seasonal flu vaccine and polio vaccine.