Travel Vaccination Frequently Asked Questions
During the consultation, our specialist travel nurse will perform a detailed risk assessment to determine what vaccinations you require for your chosen destination. The nurse will then review your past vaccinations and immunisation history and will provide a bespoke travel healthcare plan with vaccine recommendations and tailored advice for you and each member of your party.
NX Healthcare operates fully equipped state-of-the-art travel clinics in central London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Bristol, Glasgow, Leicester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Cardiff and Manchester. We provide a full range of travel vaccinations and blood tests for any destination so you are guaranteed to have easy access with better service standards at competitive pricing for all your travel vaccination and blood tests requirements.
You can book your travel jabs appointment at any of our travel vaccination centres by calling our bookings line on 020 8168 7100 or directly through booking system in less than 30 seconds.
Yes, we do provide malaria tablets if during the consultation our specialist travel nurse determines that you need them. We will also give science-based mosquito avoidance advice to support the protection provided by anti-malarial drugs.
NX Healthcare travel clinics can provide certificates for all the applicable travel vaccines you get from our clinic.
At your travel health appointment, the adviser can give you information about entry requirements for the countries you are visiting. Please note, though, that governments may change their entry requirements at short notice. So it is your responsibility to check border requirements at all stages of planning your trip abroad. Some reliable sources of information about entry requirements for a given country are:
- Travel Health Pro
- The Foreign Office
- your airline
- your travel agent
- the embassy for the country you are visiting
For some trips you will need to show proof of vaccination against meningococcal meningitis when crossing the border or arriving at the airport. The vaccination may have to have been given within a certain time before your arrival. If you don’t show the certificate, you may be delayed or turned away.
If this applies to you, we can vaccinate you against meningococcal meningitis and issue you with a meningitis certificate that you can show at the border.
For some destinations and some itineraries you will need proof of vaccination against certain diseases. Most commonly, these are meningococcal meningitis, yellow fever and polio. At your travel health appointment your travel health adviser can tell you about this. But border requirements may change rapidly and without notice so please check entry requirements frequently when planning your trip. You can learn more from Travel Health Pro, your airline or travel agent, The Foreign Office or the embassy for the country.
You can take a look at our travel vaccine price list to get an idea of how much your vaccines will cost. We constantly check other local travel vaccine centres to ensure we offer competitive prices to our customers, so our prices are subject to change without any notice. You will be surprised to learn that NX Healthcare will cost you no more than your average GP for privately performed travel vaccinations.
We recommend coming to see us for a travel health vaccines consultation six to eight weeks before you travel. But if you’re travelling sooner than that, make an appointment anyway, as we can still help.
We have good stocks of all the most common travel vaccines at our city centre travel clinics. This includes:
- cholera (Dukoral oral vaccine tablets)
- diphtheria (as part of DTaP – diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccine)
- hepatitis A
- hepatitis B
- Japanese encephalitis
- malaria
- meningococcal meningitis (plus certificate it required)
- polio (as part of DTaP – diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccine. Polio vaccine certificate available)
- rabies
- tetanus (as part of DTaP – diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccine)
- tick-borne encephalitis
- typhoid (vaccine available as a jab, oral vaccine and in combination with the hep A vaccine)
- yellow fever (Stamaril plus a certificate)
All NX Healthcare’s travel health clinics in England are regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission the regulator of health and social care. Our travel clinics in Cardiff are inspected and regulated by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales. Our travel health clinics in Glasgow and Edinburgh are inspected and regulated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
Our travel health centres are designated yellow fever vaccination centres and can administer yellow fever vaccines (Stamaril) and issue certificates that are proof of vaccination against yellow fever.
Our travel health nurses are experienced in helping patients with needle-phobia and have ways to make the experience less uncomfortable. Please do let us know if you need some extra support when having an injection.
When you come to NX Healthcare for your travel health services, you can rest assured that you are getting best value for money. We keep track of the prices that other local travel vaccines centres are charging and ensure we are always competitive.
Travel vaccines will give years of protection, and in some cases, their protection can be boosted with an extra shot. You can save money on your travel healthcare regime by bringing your vaccine records to your appointment. If you can’t remember what shots you’ve had, or when you’ve had them, it’s best to get vaccinated again to ensure you’re fully protected.
Let your travel health advisor know if you are pregnant. They will take this into account when they tailor your travel health programme. Most travel vaccines are safe for use during pregnancy, but please ask if you need reassurance or if you have any specific questions.
We do recommend that people make a travel health appointment six to eight weeks before they travel. This is because some vaccines are best given in multiple doses over several weeks. But if you’ve got a last-minute trip booked or you’re travelling in an emergency, come and see us anyway. We can help with emergency travel health advice, and some vaccines can be given on an accelerated schedule.
Please note that we do not provide a general healthcare service to travellers.
To access healthcare while on holiday, ask your travel rep, tour guide or accommodation for information about pharmacies, GPs and emergency services. Your travel health insurance may also have a health helpline that you can use. Not all countries have an emergency ambulance service, and it may be faster to make your own way to hospital.
You may need to pay up front for healthcare abroad, and you should bring your travel insurance details with you. Keep any receipts and letters from healthcare professionals as you will need these to make an insurance claim.
Some countries restrict what medications you can bring in, or have different controlled drugs lists from the UK. Check with the embassy about any restrictions. Always keep your meds in their original packaging, and bring your prescriptions with you when you travel. It can help to have a letter from your doctor, too.
The ABCD of malaria prevention is a way of remembering the steps you need to take to avoid this potentially fatal tropical disease.
A for Awareness of malaria risk (know before you go whether you are visiting an area with a malaria problem by making an appointment with a travel health advisor.
B for Bite prevention (ask your travel health advisor for advice on avoiding mosquito bites)
C for Chemoprophylaxis (avoid malaria using drugs and get advice on when to start and stop your course of malaria tablets)
D for Diagnosis (see a doctor promptly if you experience a feverish illness during or shortly after a visit to place where malaria occurs).
People rarely get sick from tetanus in the UK because the population is protected from tetanus by the nation’s vaccination programme.
If you think you’ve missed a tetanus shot, or your last tetanus shot was more than ten years ago and you’re travelling in a region without medical facilities, let us know at your appointment and we’ll assess you and, if necessary, recommend a tetanus booster.
Anti-malarials and vaccination against mosquito-borne illnesses such as Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever and tick-borne encephalitis provide good protection, but they cannot protect you completely from infection. Also, there are many other diseases that you can catch from mosquito and insect bites that are not vaccine-preventable. For example, West Nile virus, Zika, Chikungunya.
Mosquito bites and insect bites can also get infected or set off an allergic reaction in some people.
Avoiding insect and mosquito bites completes the protection provided by vaccines and antimalarials.
Vaccinations provide good protection against diseases, but they can never guarantee complete protection. Also, there are many diseases that are not vaccine preventable, including dengue fever, chikungunya and zika; and of course no vaccine can prevent accidents that cause injuries.
In most countries you will have to pay for any healthcare you receive, and it can be expensive, with bills running into thousands of pounds. Not only that but if you are too ill to travel, you may have to change your flights home or stay for longer, incurring still more costs. Travel insurance will cover some of these costs.
Also note that you may invalidate your travel insurance policy if you claim for a vaccine-preventable disease that you have not been vaccinated against.
Many jobs and professions will expose you to travel health risks. For example, agricultural or food workers may visit farms or markets abroad. Let your travel health adviser know about what work you’ll be doing abroad.
Your occupational health department may have given you some information about the risks you’ll be exposed to, or recommended some vaccines. Please bring to your travel health appointment any information that they’ve given you.
The travel vaccines you need for your trip abroad depend on where you are going, when you’re going, the entry requirements for the country you are visiting and the activities you have planned. Make a travel health appointment ahead of your trip and our nurse advisors can tell you what vaccines you need for a cultural trip.
Although luxury accommodation will reduce your exposure to some pathogens and common traveller’s diseases, you should still get travel health advice ahead of your trip. It is still possible to get sick while staying in luxury accommodation. Vaccine-preventable traveller’s diseases such as hepatitis A and yellow fever can spoil your trip and may have ill-effects that last beyond your return to the UK.
Come and see our travel health nurses six to eight weeks before your trip – but we can also help if you are travelling sooner than that.
The travel vaccines you need for your gap year trip will depend on where you are going, when and what activities you have planned. There are some vaccines that are recommended for longer trips, too. You can make a double appointment if you’re going on a multi-destination trip. That will give our nurse advisors extra time to work out the right vaccine regime for you. Bring your itinerary with you to your travel health appointment.