Home / Travel Services
Travel Services
Travelling the world is an amazing experience. Whether you’re travelling to visit family and friend or going on a business trip or just kicking back on vacation, there are a few things you should do before you leave home. Planning ahead can save you from unexpected inconveniences and more importantly, help prevent major problems like contracting diseases while travelling.
Destination Advice
Primary Travel Services
Travel Consultation
Travel Vaccinations
Travel Supplies
If planning ahead seems like a daunting task, don’t give up. The following resources
can help provide the information you need to organize a fun and healthy trip:
Your Healthcare Professional is your primary resource for health information.
What is the quality of the water? Is it fit for consumption?
Are accommodation and food safety standards comparable to those of North America?
What can I do to reduce my risk of becoming ill
Travel Agents have access to information on a wide variety of travel destinations.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada provides timely Travel Updates, Warnings and Current Issues advisories for visitors to foreign countries. Travelers can learn about security threats, dangerous weather conditions, natural disasters, health issues or political instability.
The Public Health Agency of Canada protects the health of Canadians at home and abroad. The site offers advice on travel health, travel notices, emergency preparedness, infectious disease and injury prevention.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a U.S. organization that provides comprehensive travel health information, including destination, disease and vaccination information and outbreak notices.
Travel disease prevention starts before you leave home. Staying healthy is every traveler’s goal so once you have a destination in mind, it’s time to get busy and do your homework! Find out all you can about the place you’ll be visiting. Not only will it make your journey more enjoyable, but it might also prevent you from becoming ill. To help identify health risks destinations, ask yourself:
• Do any particular infectious diseases commonly occur at this destination?
-
What is the quality of the water? Is it fit for consumption?
-
Are accommodation and food safety standards comparable to those of North America?
-
What can I do to reduce my risk of becoming ill
- TRAVELER’S DIARRHEA & CHOLERA
- HEPATITIS B
- HEPATITIS A
- RABIES
- YELLOW FEVER
- JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS
- TYPHOID
- Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis
- MENINGOCOCCAL MENINGITIS
Traveler’s diarrhea is frequent, loose, or watery bowel movements usually from eating or drinking contaminated foods or fluids. Symptoms may also include stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, bloating and feeling unwell. Symptoms can begin suddenly and last 3 to 5 days.
The bacterial infection cholera causes vomiting and diarrhea, which can result in dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. cholera bacteria are also found in the stool of infected people and the disease is spread in the same way. In addition, cholera bacteria can live in the water of certain coastal areas, and the disease can be spread by eating raw or undercooked seafood and shellfish.
The vaccine gives you some protection against traveler’s diarrhea and cholera, which are infections caused by 2 types of bacteria. There is an oral vaccine that can protect against Cholera. Ask our Pharmacist for more information
Hepatitis B vaccine can prevent hepatitis B. Hepatitis B is a liver disease that can cause mild illness lasting a few weeks, or it can lead to a serious, lifelong illness.The viral liver disease hepatitis B is a risk for certain travelers.
Hepatitis B is spread when blood, semen, or other body fluid infected with the hepatitis B virus enters the body of a person who is not infected.
Valley Ridge Pharmacy can provide a course of the vaccine that provides long-term protection from hepatitis B.
This vaccine is used to prevent hepatitis A, a type of liver disease that is caused by the hepatitis A virus (HAV). Travelers can contract hepatitis A through contaminated food and water. It causes inflammation of the liver.
This vaccine is used for the prevention of disease caused by the hepatitis A virus in persons 12 months of age and older. The primary dose should be given at least 2 weeks prior to expected exposure to HAV Ranchland Pharmacy can administer a course of hep A vaccine shots that will give protection against heppatitis A.
Rabies is a serious disease. It is caused by a virus.Rabies is mainly a disease of animals. Humans get rabies when they are bitten by infected animals.
At first there might not be any symptoms. But weeks, or even months after a bite, rabies can cause pain, fatigue, headaches, fever, and irritability. These are followed by seizures, hallucinations, and paralysis. Human rabies is almost always fatal.
Rabies vaccine is given to people at high risk of rabies to protect them if they are exposed. It can also prevent the disease if it is given to a person after they have been exposed.Rabies vaccine is made from killed rabies virus. It cannot cause rabies.
The rabies vaccine will be recommended to traveler’s going to a country where rabies is endemic who plan to visit remote areas or who work with animals.
A single dose provides lifelong protection for most people.The vaccine is a live, weakened form of the virus given as a single shot.Vaccine is recommended for people aged 9 months or older and who are traveling to or living in areas at risk for yellow fever virus in Africa and South America.
Reactions to yellow fever vaccine are generally mild. They may include headaches, muscle aches, and low-grade fevers.
A shot of the vaccine can protect against yellow fever for life. Along with your shot you will get an international certificate of yellow fever vaccination. Keep this card safe as you will need it to enter some countries. For most travelers, a single dose of yellow fever vaccine provides protection.Visit and get your Yellow fever vaccination today at Valley Ridge Pharmacy!
Japanese Encephalitis is a viral disease prevalent in south east Asia, caused by infected mosquitos. Travellers going to certain rural areas in south east Asia could be at risk of getting JE. Symptoms could be headache, high fever, stiff neck, spastic paralysis. JE vaccine can protect you from this risk.
At Valley Ridge Pharmacy we can provide the Japanese encephalitis vaccine which provides a good degree of protection from JE, and needs to be supported by mosquito avoidance.
Talk to our travel consultant for more information about risk of JE and how to prevent it.
.
Typhoid vaccine can prevent typhoid fever.
People who are actively ill with typhoid fever and people who are carriers of the bacteria that cause typhoid fever can both spread the bacteria to other people. When someone eats or drinks contaminated food or drink, the bacteria can multiply and spread into the bloodstream, causing typhoid fever.
Typhoid, a contagious and sometimes fatal food-borne infection, is the result of Salmonella bacteria growing in the intestines and in the blood.
The typhoid shot is recommended for travelers going to parts of the world with poor sanitation. There are two vaccines to prevent typhoid fever. One is an inactivated (killed) vaccine and the other is a live, attenuated (weakened) vaccine. Valley Ridge Pharmacy as your health care provider can help you decide which type of typhoid vaccine is best for you.
Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis
Tetanus (lockjaw), an acute, noncommunicable, often fatal, neuromuscular disease caused by a bacterium. occurs worldwide. Transmission is via contamination of wounds, burns, punctures, or other breaks in the skin.
Diphtheria, an acute bacterial disease of the nasopharynx or skin. Diphtheria is transmitted from person to person through oral or respiratory droplets and close physical contact.
Pertussis (whooping cough), a highly communicable respiratory disease caused by bacteria. Pertussis is transmitted from person to person through aerosolized respiratory droplets (coughing or sneezing) or direct contact with respiratory secretions
Ask Our Travel Health Consultant if you need any of these vaccines.
Meningitis is potentially fatal; it is an acute bacterial infection of the blood and brain. Meningitis disease occurs worldwide, but the highest incidence is in some developing countries in the sub-Saharan Africa.
Bacteria are transmitted through direct contact with airborne droplets from infected persons.
The most common signs and symptoms of meningitis infection are fever and a rash, severe headache, vomiting, neck and back pain.
Ask our travel health consultant if you require a vaccine for Meningitis for your trip.