To Australasian health care practitioners, the Manual of Travel Medicine has proved to be a practical, user-friendly, and authoritative desk-top reference, and in this third edition they will continue to find the information and advice they need to care for travellers.

Since publication of the second edition in 2004, travel medicine has changed significantly. International tourist numbers continue to rise; there are now approximately 900 million international trips taken annually worldwide, and almost 7 million outbound trips taken by Australians each year. A greater proportion of travel is also being undertaken by high-risk groups, such as those with immunosuppression, the elderly, pregnant women, and young children, which increases complexities surrounding health issues and disease risks. Travel medicine as a discipline has also evolved substantially, with increasing recognition of the need to make recommendations based on the best available evidence. Accordingly, there has been intensified surveillance of health problems among travellers as well as expansion of research in the field. Previous recommendations were often based on case reports, case series, or studies done by single institutions. More global and generalisable data is now being analysed as a basis for updating travel advice.

The proliferation of travel health information is making it increasingly difficult to keep abreast of the latest advances in the field. The growing number of resources tends to complicate rather than simplify travel guidance, especially since there is lack of consensus between different resources on many aspects of travel health advice. For example, the European perspective on antimalarials provided in the WHO blue book is markedly different from the US perspective given in the CDC yellow book, despite the fact that both are considered ‘authoritative’ resources. There is also no national website providing detailed Australian consensus travel guidelines.

The Manual of Travel Medicine is designed to provide essential information about pre-travel medicine. Its organisation reflects what is needed during a consultation, progressing from principles to:

• immunisation;
• prevention and management of malaria;
• prevention and management of traveller’s diarrhoea;
• specific infectious and non-infectious conditions that may require attention and discussion;
• specific groups of travellers;
• health issues in returned travellers; and
• additional resources.

The Manual’s prime objectives are to provide:

• a clear reference for recommendations regarding immunisations, malaria prophylaxis, and other key travel health areas; and
• a practical approach to management of most issues that arise in the medical care of travellers.

For this third edition of the Manual of Travel Medicine the best features of its predecessors have been retained. It remains a handy reference tool and not a comprehensive textbook. Recognising the controversies and different approaches advocated by different authorities, the authors endeavour to explain what they think and do. It therefore makes reference to advice given in other resources, as well as providing practical recommendations on how to decide between various pre-travel advice options. It is aimed at all Australian health care workers interested in and involved in the care of travellers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

All the information in the Manual has been extensively revised, with additional changes including:

• One new chapter, Health issues in returned travellers, focusing on the more common and important illnesses and their presentations. The place of screening of asymptomatic travellers is included.
• Two new vaccines, for pneumococcal infections and rotavirus infection. Plague vaccine has been deleted as it is no longer available.

Two additional authors have been recruited for this third edition, Jim Black is a senior epidemiologist and expert in infectious disease surveillance. Mike Starr is a paediatrician and infectious diseases physician with special interests in maternal and paediatric travel health issues, as well as emergency medicine and medical education.

Bibliographic details:

Paperback, published, December, 2011.  245 x 170mm. 392 pages.
Includes references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-9808649-6-0. $A85.00 rrp.  

epub, published, May, 2014. 
ISBN: 978-0-9872905-7-1. $A59.95 rrp.  

ePDF, published, May, 2014. 
ISBN: 978-0-9872905-7-1. $A59.95 rrp.