Expert: Travel Vaccines Should Be Personalized Based on the Destination

Pharmacy Times interviewed Lauren Posteraro, PharmD, a pharmacist with Allegheny Health Network (AHN), to discuss travel vaccines. Posteraro explains that while there aren’t “routine” travel vaccines, the CDC offers valuable references based on where an individual is traveling to. She notes that the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect protocols for travel vaccines; however, many destinations earlier in the pandemic required individuals to be vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to travel. Posteraro also highlights how AHN stands out when it comes to vaccination and care services through their programs and partnerships.

Pharmacy Times®: Travel vaccines are significant in protecting international travelers from contracting infections while spending time outside of the US. What are the most commonly recommended travel vaccines, and do they vary depending on the traveler’s destination.

Posteraro: It’s kind of a tough question, but the CDC does a great job with this. If you go on the CDC’s website, there is a page where you can type in where you’re going—or where a patient is going—and if you’re going to travel or do excursions or eat adventurously, what vaccines you should receive. So, it’s kind of hard to say what the top vaccines that people would need. I always say I feel like hepatitis A and B, but it always does vary. For example, there’s Africa, travelers should get a yellow fever vaccine because there may be [infected] mosquitoes there. Or say, maybe you don’t want to get cholera, which is contracted orally. I really do think it does depend on where you’re going, the activities that you are going to be partaking in, and things like that.

Like I [discussed earlier], I think the CDC is great, because you can provide a patient’s information, how long they’re going [to their travel destination], when they’re going, if they’re starting anywhere else, and [that information] it is based off of [the individual patient]. I don’t think there’s a blanket statement you can say everyone needs this, this, this, and this, but obviously, you always want to have all your routine vaccines.

Pharmacy Times: TheCOVID-19 pandemic has been significant in contributing to vaccine hesitancy. How has the pandemic affected travel vaccine recommendations and requirements?

Posteraro: As far as changes in travel recommendations, the pandemic didn’t really influence that. Countries required travelers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before travel, but—as far as I know—those requirements have been lifted.

In general, [from my experience,] I see that less and less people are getting vaccinated for COVID-19. [Earlier in the pandemic], everyone was so afraid and in the media, there was contradicting information…so people were skeptical. People have gotten their first [2 doses of the] vaccine, but now that the boosters are coming around, I see that less and less people are coming back to get those. People who are immunocompromised or are older, I see them coming for their boosters, but I see a little bit more hesitancy of people [in general] getting their boosters because there are some unknowns. People like to be educated, they like to educate themselves, they want to see the effects of new drugs or vaccines.

Also, during [the pandemic], we all wanted COVID-19 to become like the flu. We wanted everyone to get vaccinated so it can become less and less virulent…like the common cold or like the flu. But I think as time went on, people got nervous about [symptoms or different effects of the vaccine] so I [personally] see a decrease in the amount of people getting boosters. [Especially] people who are in the age range of 20 to 40 years [maybe]…we are seeing less people come back.

Pharmacy Times: How might AHN stand out when it comes to immunizations and vaccinations? Are there certain services, education, resources, etc. that you may provide that other health systems do not?

Posteraro: I think that [AHN] actually has some great services…there is a program called Care Partner Clinic, and [we] have patients that may have had a splenectomy, [for example,] and [these] patients need to get a couple of different vaccines, such as pneumonia, meningitis, haemophilus influenza after getting your spleen out…and I think there were some barriers that [these patients] were having with insurances and—how we talked about before—transportation, because some people live an hour away and have to come back and get all these vaccines after their splenectomy.

So, AHN partnered with Giant Eagle and we asked, “Hey, we send these patients there?” I think [we are] great with trying to work with the community to vaccinate our population and the patients. We don’t want to stop, right? If we can’t give patients the vaccine, we’re trying to go out and [figure out] how can we make it better for our patients? How can we get them the vaccines they need knowing and understanding [that] transportation might be an issue, or we don’t take that insurance? We care so much about patients, and we want to make sure that they finish care.