| Travel
and Tropical Medicine Programs
About the Program
The International Clinic provides a family-oriented
program to reduce the incidence of travel related illness. Most
patients are from the international community of Boston Medical
Center, where more than half of all children have at least one parent
who was born outside the United States. Typical travel plans might
include siblings travelling to Haiti to spend the summer with their
grandparents, or a child going to Ghana for a family funeral.
The Travel Medicine program provides:
- Travel-specific immunizations
- Information about prevention
of malaria and other insect-borne diseases
- Information about prevention
and treatment of traveler's diarrhea
- Education about prevention of
other travel-related conditions
- Hand-outs for patients to take
with them outlining preventive measures they can carry out during
their travels
- Evaluation of travelers who
develop illness during their travels
For health information on international travel,
see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
website.
Chukwe's Story
When he was six years old, Chukwe missed the first
few days of first grade because he was hospitalized at Boston Medical
Center with malaria after a visit to Africa to visit his grandparents.
He had been born 3 months early at Boston Medical Center, and his
mother had been worried that the high fevers and headaches would
be particularly harmful to him because of his prematurity. Before
their next trip, she wanted him to receive medicine to prevent another
attack of malaria. He was referred to the International Clinic by
his primary care doctor at BMC.
He left the International Clinic with a prescription
for an anti-malarial drug, as well as information about how to prevent
insect bites using mosquito nets and insect repellents formulated
especially for children. In addition, he was immunized against typhoid,
hepatitis A, yellow fever, and meningococcal meningitis, diseases
prevalent in Africa. He returned healthy from his visit, and started
third grade on time.
Tropical Medicine Program
About the Program
Migration of human populations is occurring at unprecedented
levels in the 1990’s. International travel has grown at rates
of 7% per year for the past several decades, making it more important
than ever before that health providers in the United States be able
to diagnose and treat illnesses acquired abroad.
The International Clinic provides consultation services
for diseases acquired abroad, including parasitic infections and
other conditions such as malaria, schistosomiasis, strongyloides,
which may be unfamiliar to many American physicians. The clinic
maintains ties with the Centers
for Diseases Control and Prevention, the National
Institutes of Health, and the Hanson’s Disease Center in
order to provide the most current diagnostic and treatment services.
Close contact is maintained with each patient’s primary care
provider during each consultation. Both adult and pediatric infectious
disease specialists with training in international health and tropical
medicine are available to see patients in the clinic.
Tuyet’s Story
Tuyet was a shy teenager wearing long sleeves on
a sweltering summer day when first seen at the International Clinic.
She was referred for management of leprosy, contracted in her native
Vietnam. She was painfully self-conscious about the pale area on
her left arm, and was reluctant to uncover it.
One warm spring day, after 3 years of daily medication,
Tuyet arrived in clinic wearing a short sleeved blouse. The lesion
was now barely distinguishable from the surrounding skin. A year
later, she was able to diagnose and treat illnesses acquired abroad.
For more information, please contact:
Clinic Coordinator: 617-414-5671
Nurse Coordinator: 617-414-7455
International Clinic
Boston Medical Center
Dowling - Ground Floor
818 Harrison Ave.
Boston MA 02118
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