All the vaccinations for safe travel

Visiting distant countries, at affordable prices and in a short time. This opportunity has been opened up by low-cost airlines and the potential of platforms that allow you to organize your own trips. Yet, there are aspects of a vacation that never change. Safety, for example, must always remain a top priority. According to the Italian National Institute of Health, which regularly updates its travel medicine web pages, everyone who travels around the world every year is at significant risk of becoming ill and becoming a vehicle of infection for others once they return home. This includes Italians, who—as reported by the Ministry of Health—18 million people travel to foreign destinations, often tropical ones, every year.

Check your health status

So, what precautions should you take before traveling to countries with different health and hygiene standards than your home country? First and foremost, in addition to checking your general health for any illnesses, allergies, or food or drug intolerances, are vaccinations (and chemoprophylaxis for diseases for which a universal vaccine is not yet available, such as malaria).

A visit to the doctor before leaving

To prepare for entry into the country you've chosen as a tourist destination, you can first consult the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website viaggiaresicuri.it . This website contains all the important health information for your desired destination, including contact information for infectious disease specialists, the main diseases present in the region, any ongoing epidemics, and any vaccinations required or recommended for your stay. However, the information on the website, while valuable, should not replace a visit to a travel medicine specialist or your family doctor. Knowing your health status, they should also help you understand the potential risks you're exposing yourself to during your trip, based on any pre-existing illnesses or conditions, and how to minimize them. The visit, ISS experts suggest, should be scheduled 4-6 weeks before departure and should take into account not only the destination and travel itinerary, but also the traveler's characteristics: children, the elderly, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals are particularly vulnerable groups who deserve extra attention. During the visit, the doctor will also provide a list of medications needed during the trip, along with information on symptoms, how to take them, and any side effects.

The vaccination certificate

Before visiting the doctor, it's a good idea to get your vaccination certificate. In some regions, it can be downloaded directly from the website of the agency managing your health services, or requested via email from the relevant local health authority (ASL) offices. Checking the certificate will tell you whether you're up to date with the mandatory vaccinations in your country. Those required by the national program are against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP), polio (IPV), hepatitis B (HBV), Haemophilus influenzae b (Hib), and measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV).

Yellow fever and meningitis

It's also important to understand which vaccinations are required in the country you intend to visit. Vaccination certificates against smallpox and cholera are no longer required, while yellow fever vaccination, whether for incoming travelers or those in transit—for example, during an airport stopover—is mandatory for travel to some African and Latin American countries. Even if the country doesn't explicitly require it, this protection is still recommended for anyone traveling outside urban areas in endemic countries. Another infectious disease to be particularly wary of is meningococcal meningitis (ACWY). Some countries (such as Saudi Arabia, particularly during pilgrimages to Mecca) require an international vaccination certificate for all travelers, including those in transit. Then there are the vaccinations recommended based on the risk of contracting the infection during travel: Hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis (JE), Meningitis (A, C, Y, W, B, X,), Rabies, Tuberculosis, Typhoid fever, Cholera, Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), HPV.

Where to find information

In addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, information can be found on the Istituto Superiore di Sanità page dedicated to vaccinations for international travellers , on the websites of the Ministry of Health , the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) .