Last Minute Illnesses for Travelers

Many travelers are coming to our clinic with concerns about last minute illnesses or concerns that could prevent their travel.

Usually these are small issues that can be managed quickly at a walk in clinic and cause more anxiety than the issues merit.

Many parents are concerned that their young children will be unable to fly because of an ear infection.

We suggest getting into a clinic as soon as possible to establish whether an infection is present or not. A doctor can easily begin prescribing treatment soon.

Children may fly with a red ear. Often fluid in the middle ear is not sensitive to changes in pressure so are unaffected by air travel.

Travelers with sore throats may now be assessed very quickly with the new Rapid Strep test kits available in many city clinics. With these the doctor can determine within 15 minutes whether Strep throat (streptococcus pharyngitis) is present and then prescribe treatment. This replaces the older Strep throat swab cultures, which take several days to get results for. The swab cultures really slowed treatment as we had formerly had to wait for laboratory confirmation, phone the patient back and the phone the pharmacy all while the person remained untreated (and contagious to more people).

The rapid strep swab saves money time and grief as an accurate diagnosis is obtained rapidly and travellers may go on their trip. It also decreases the number of unnecessary antibiotics that were formerly prescribed when patients couldn't wait for a result. This is especially important since the vast majority of sore throats are caused by cold viruses and do not need antibiotics.

Travel clinics will sometimes recommend to long term women travelers to bring a home pregnancy test abroad with them if they have irregular periods to confirm a pregnancy early.

A new Influenza A swab is being looked at as a similar device to rapidly diagnose Influenza type A (“the flu”). At present this Influenza kit is being investigated, is not insured, and not generally available. If available it would likely cost the patient over 30$ to perform but would change the way we diagnose and treat influenza with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Not all rapid tests are preferable though and we generally discourage the home malaria test kits that are available over the Internet. These would ideally check from a spot of blood and enable a traveller to see if they had malaria. They are not reliable enough and travellers may have an unnecessary delay in seeking appropriate if they rely on these.

Many Family Medicine and Walk in clinics in Winnipeg can provide reliable rapid testing of common ailments and have extended hours to help you before your trip and resolve problems before you go.