Ebola awareness resources

Public Health England are gathering a significant number of resources for Ebola virus disease: clinical management guidance. These guidance publications for professionals are available here.  A number of posters may be of use in your workplace including the one below which was published online yesterday. For direct access click on the image below

and here's another one click on image again for access 

Traveller advice resources

I'm finding it harder and harder to impart all the advice needed to a traveller within the time limit of a consultation.  Sometimes its necessary to provide information for them to take away and review after the travel risk assessment and management decisions have collectively been made.  So although my website is intended for healthcare professionals, I've created a page on there for the traveller to use to access links to some helpful resources after the appointment.  Ive created it intentionally to be easy and quick to use, not overcrowded and I hope bright and colourful!  The 'Platform' image at the top of the page just tickled me as it signifies a journey to be made, albeit on this occasion part of the journey to Hogwarts.  This sign can be seen at King's Cross Station in London and it has a trolley embedded half way into the wall for a photo opportunity for many a 'Harry Potter' fan. See here!
I hope the page will help you with your travellers as you see them in a consultation or to refer to it after your discussion.  More items will be added as I have time to create them!  Click here on on the image below to see the page.

Malaria Matters

Malaria Matters is an e-learning course that follows the content of the document 'Guidelines for malaria prevention in travellers from the UK' which is written by the Health Protection Agency Advisory Committee for Malaria Prevention.  This document was updated in July 2014.  The course is divided into 5 sections plus a resources element at the end.  A certificate of completion can be obtained on successfully passing the assessment within the course.  It takes up to 6 hours to complete the learning which uses a variety of features including animation of the malaria lifecycle, a video of a malaria consultation and some interactive case studies.  For more details click on the image below or HERE

Update for Immunisation Topics

Public Health England have just revised their excellent flow chart 'Vaccination of individuals with uncertain or incomplete immunisation status' which is an essential tool for anyone involved in immunisation.  Note the 'General principles' on the bottom left of the chart and links to the 'Green Book' and also 'other country schedules' just under the title on the form.  To access click on the image below and also available on my immunisation resources page here (item no. 5)

Public Health England have also published a document entitled 'Revised recommendation for the administration of more than one live vaccine'.   Previous general guidance that live vaccines should be given on the same day or at least 4 weeks apart' is no longer a general statement.  We saw change in this policy when the Green Book chapter on yellow fever was updated in April 2014.  This new document explains the rationale and provides a comprehensive table of the vaccine combinations and new recommendations.  To see the full document click HERE 

Below is the summary chart but please also read the full document.  

New FACEBOOK page

I've recently set up a Facebook page about my website - it's well recognised that this is a good way to reach more people as opposed to searching for new information on my website.  So in the future you may see some repetition on here and the Facebook page but its also easier to post news on there!  To access it click here or the image below and when on my website you can also click the FB icon on the right hand side of the home page (www.janechiodini.co.uk).   If you like it please click the 'like' button!

Malaria Guidelines for 2014

The updated Guidelines for malaria prevention in travellers from the UK for 2014 were published on the Health Protection England website this afternoon.  For a downloadable copy of the document click HERE.
NaTHNaC have written a useful resume of the key changes in this document from the 2013 edition - for full details see here.

One of the biggest changes is the advice for travellers going to India and the map is quite different to that posted in the 2007 guidelines - see the latest version below.  Where there is orange/peach coloured shading the travel advice after assessment is strict bite prevention measures plus taking either atovaquone plus proguanil or doxycycline or mefloquine (which ever is suitable and preferred by the traveller). Chemoprophylaxis is now no longer routinely recommended for the other areas.  However for these destinations the committee who write the guidelines (called ACMP) have stated

"A recommendation for bite prevention plus awareness of risk does not mean there is NO risk of malaria in the place in question, but indicates that ACMP considers the level of risk to be below the threshold for recommending chemoprophylaxis. As bite avoidance is now the main preventive measure for most of India, rigorous adherence to the recommendations in Chapter 3 is strongly advised. The final decision whether or not to advise chemoprophylaxis rests with the travel health advisor and the traveller after individual risk assessment has been performed.  Whilst the local malaria situation is the same for all travellers to a given location, long-term VFR visitors run a higher risk. Furthermore, once infected the risk of developing severe or complicated malaria is higher in certain groups eg the elderly and especially pregnant women.  Therefore, whether or not chemoprophylaxis is advised, special attention must be given to bite prevention and febrile illness must be taken seriously and investigated promptly."

World Hepatitis Day

Today is World Hepatitis Day and you'll find a wealth of information and fantastic resources on the WHO website here and on the World Hepatitis Alliance website too here. Did you know for example, that viral hepatitis affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic liver disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year.   The date of 28 July was chosen for World Hepatitis Day in honour of the birthday of Nobel Laureate Professor Baruch Samuel Blumberg, discoverer of the hepatitis B virus.

• This link here will take you to the official World Hepatitis Day making the very best use of resources and social networking opportunities.  
• Updated hepatitis A, B, C and E factsheets can be found here 
• A poster campaign (image above) in which you can customise the poster is availale here 
• A video for World Hepatitis Day click here 
• I love the infographics posters as they convey such strong messages in a simple format - see here.  

CLICK around the resources links above and you'll find much much more!