About the
guidelines

Purpose of Information

The Travel Medicine Clinical Guidelines Australia and New Zealand provide information on preparing travellers medically for international travel. It is designed as a travel medicine resource for healthcare professionals, including travel health practitioners, general practitioners, nurses, and pharmacists. The guidelines will be produced in a phased manner, starting with International travel for Australians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The committee is currently working on the guidelines for insect-borne diseases, Japanese encephalitis, and the Pre-Travel consultation. The range of topics covered will be expanded over time.

Each section will be developed as a one-stop repository for travel medicine information, which will be readily available for general practitioners and travel health practitioners as a reference to provide guidance to assist with travel medicine consultations. The aim is to facilitate the provision of comprehensive information to travel medicine practitioners advising Australian and New Zealand travellers.

Additionally, you will find relevant links and printable resources available as supplementary information to the guidelines.

These guidelines have been developed and endorsed by the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) and supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Sanofi ANZ. Technical and editorial assistance has been provided by Arterial Education Ltd. Information on committee members to follow.

About the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM)

The ACTM is committed to developing tropical medicine and works with professionals to help manage the global burden of tropical disease and injury through networking, education, research, and development.

The ACTM was founded on 29th May 1991 and at present has over 600 members from over 30 countries around the world, including doctors, nurses, veterinarians, academics, military, laboratory scientists and other health professionals. It is the pre-eminent organisation in the Australasian region representing professional interests in Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine, and Wilderness Medicine.

In March 2000, the College established a Faculty of Travel Medicine and, in 2011, the Faculty of Wilderness and Expedition Medicine. This was the first Faculty of Travel Medicine in the world. Together with other regional and global organisations such as the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College and Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow, the International Society of Travel Medicine, the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society and the New Zealand Society of Travel Medicine, these societies have contributed significantly to the development of the field of Travel Medicine.

The Faculty of Travel Medicine (ACTM) also organises an annual Southern Cross Travel Medicine Conference. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the College has been organising monthly webinars covering Travel Medicine, Tropical Medicine, Wilderness Medicine, and One Health.

Region-specific guidelines in Travel Medicine for practitioners in Australia and New Zealand were not previously available, but work is well underway to provide this valuable resource. In the past, practitioners have had to use a myriad of resources from the Americas and Europe. Until they are, Practitioners will continue to use a myriad of sources from the Americas and Europe as they access information to aid in the preparation of our travellers prior to international travel. There are textbooks available for practitioners, such as the Manual of Travel Medicine (Torresi J and McGuiness S, et al.), which is now in its 4th edition. Practitioners in our region require easily accessible, comprehensive, and locally relevant guidelines in Travel Medicine that can be rapidly updated as situations change.

Steering Committee Members

Dr Jennifer Sisson Chief Medical Officer Travel Doctor - TMVC	Dr Jennifer Sisson is the CMO of Travel Doctor TMVC. After originally training in General Practice, she started working in Travel Medicine in 1997 and since 2005 has worked predominantly in the areas of Travel, Occupational and Tropical Medicine. Jennifer obtained a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine, with distinction, from James Cook University. She is Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM). Jennifer is currently the Dean and a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine (ACTM) and Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. She belongs to the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) and ANZSOM. Currently, Jennifer is Chair of the ISTM Travel for Work Interest Group and chair of the Committee producing these guidelines. Jennifer has worked extensively in the area of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, both within the company and for the WA Department of Health. Education is one of her main passions and she spends significant time educating staff within the company and lecturing at conferences and on line within Australia and overseas.
Mrs Catherine Keil	Catherine Keil is an Australian/British Nurse Practitioner specialising in travel health, immunisations and child development. In 2006, she completed a Diploma in Travel Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, UK, and in 2014 completed the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health. Since 2017, she has worked as an endorsed Nurse Practitioner. In 2019, she became a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine (FFTM), Australasian College of Tropical Medicine. From May 2023, she is the Chair of the ISTM Nurse Professional Steering Council.
Mrs Ruth Anderson	Ruth Anderson’s role in business development with Travelvax has been a perfect blend of her work experiences and passions: combining her nursing with a strong travel background – au pair in London and Rome; resort nurse in New Caledonia, Egypt and Mexico, and as a long-haul flight attendant. She is now involved in travel health training for nurses, updating the Travelvax website and writing a weekly travel health alert newsletter. Ruth passed the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health in 2007 and spent 6 years on the Society’s Nurses Professional Group Steering Committee until 2021.
Prof Marc Shaw	With experiences in both medicine and travel, Marc Shaw is able to feed his other passions in life – the theatre and fine humour. A Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practice, he was a Family Practitioner for 15 years before specialising in travel and tropical medicine. A Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine from Glasgow, he is also a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and of the Faculty of Travel Medicine and Expedition Medicine from the same College. In 2008, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and was a recipient of the Inaugural Award for Travel Medicine from the Australasian Society of Tropical Medicine. He has interests in travel, theatre and expeditions to remote regions providing medical expertise in South America and also to Bamiyan in Afghanistan as Doctor to the New Zealand Defense Forces. Currently, he is both Medical Director of the Worldwise Travellers Health Centres of New Zealand, and an Adjunct Professor College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, at James Cook University Australia.
Mrs Caroline Nash	Caroline Nash is a Registered Nurse with experience in Public Health, Tropical Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), Travel Medicine and Immunisation Practice. Caroline is an Advisory Council Member and Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine (FFTM). Caroline has studied internationally at Mahidol University and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Rabies in Bangkok. She is the current Chair of the steering committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) Nursing Professional Group and a Standing Committee member for Travel Health Nurses of Australia and New Zealand. Caroline is employed by Global Health Care Provider, Aspen Medical and has worked on many domestic and international projects. In her role as Manager Clinical Strategy, she provides clinical support to a diverse range of business units and projects across the organisation.
Mrs Vicki Lee	Vicki Lee was introduced to Travel Medicine when she left hospital nursing to join General Practice. Her interest grew and became passionate about it. Currently, she is working as a Registered Nurse at Sonic Health Plus, West Perth, and has been involved in Travel medicine for the past 15 years. One of her roles is to lead a nurse-initiate travel health clinic daily with onsite medical support. Besides being a resource person in travel for the clinic and for some of the other Sonic nurses, she also assists Travelvax (part of Sonic Health Plus) in providing travel health training to Sonic Health Nurses within the state. She completed the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health and a Graduate Certificate in Nursing education at the University of Notre Dame.
Dr Deb Mills	Dr Deborah Mills is the Medical Director of the specialised Travel Medicine clinic in Brisbane, Australia, having worked in the area of travel medicine for over 30 years. She is the medical spokesperson for the Travel Medicine Alliance, a network of specialised travel medicine providers across Australia. Her book ‘Travelling Well’, is in its 21st edition with over 210,000 copies in print. Her current research interests are intradermal vaccines (especially Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis), vaccine side effects, smartphone apps, and encouraging safer travel.
Prof Colleen Lau	Prof Colleen Lau is an NHMRC Fellow and Professorial Research Fellow at the UQ School of Public Health. Her areas of expertise include emerging infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, and clinical travel medicine. Her wide range of research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, spatial epidemiology and disease mapping, infectious disease surveillance and elimination, vaccinations, travel health, environmental health, and digital decision support tools. Professor Lau's research projects focus on answering practical questions in clinical management of infectious diseases and operational questions on improving strategies to solve public health problems.
Dr Sarah McGuinness	Dr Sarah McGuinness is an infectious diseases physician, lecturer and researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. She holds dual positions as Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, at the Alfred Hospital and Research Fellow in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, at Monash University. Her clinical areas of expertise include travel and tropical medicine. She runs a tertiary hospital-based travel clinic and co-facilitates an annual Travel Medicine Masterclass for GPs and other health professionals providing care to travellers. She is also an author of the Manual of Travel Medicine (4th edition), a practical handbook for Australasian clinicians. Her research interests span clinical and public health aspects of infectious diseases epidemiology and prevention and she has a particular interest in improving ways to prevent and treat infectious diseases in vulnerable populations (including travellers, immigrants and refugees, healthcare workers, and those living in low-resource settings).
Mrs Trish Smith	Trish Smith is a Registered Nurse with post graduate qualifications in midwifery, education, family health and travel medicine. Her career spans four decades, of which the last 19 years has been working and volunteering overseas, while accompanying her spouse with his career transfers. This exposed Trish to both the positive and negative impact of tourism. Trish credits these experiences as prompting her interest in responsible travel and tourism. Completing the Diploma in Travel Medicine in 2011, offered by The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, Trish was admitted as an Associate of the Faculty of Travel Medicine AFTM RCPS (Glasgow). She is an active member of ISTM since 2011, and has completed the ISTM Certificate in Travel Health™ CTH® examination in 2012. She has been a current member of the ISTM Examination Committee since 2016. She is a joined member of the Responsible Travel Group council since 2015 and became the Chair of this Group in June 2019. Trish is also a member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine (MFTM), Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and a Member of the Standing Committee for Travel Health Nurses of Australia and New Zealand.