For many, global travel is a source of excitement and adventure. To ensure these journeys are safe and healthy, service members, their families, and other beneficiaries have access to comprehensive pre-travel medical care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. While known for its specialized services, many may not be aware that Walter Reed offers several convenient options for travel medicine consultations.

Several services offer pre-travel care at Walter Reed, including Preventive Medicine, the Infectious Disease and Travel Clinic, Pediatric Infectious Disease and Allergy/Immunology. While many patients might go to their Primary Care Provider (PCP) for travel advice, these travel clinics have specialized resources to provide a more comprehensive assessment.

In the Preventive Medicine Travel Clinic, for instance, travelers can have a 30- to 45-minute virtual consultations, as opposed to shorter (often 10-to-15-minute) consultations with PCPs, according to Dr. James Mancuso, staff physician at Walter Reed and professor at the Uniformed Services University. “Everybody loves the Travel Clinic because the [travelers] are getting preventive interventions like vaccines, medications, and counseling and we're getting to find out about all the cool places where people are going,” said Mancuso.

Pre-travel care is available to service members, their families, military retirees, and general schedule civilians traveling for work. These clinics play a critical role in force health protection and overall readiness. U.S. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Teshome Tafes, service chief for Preventive Medicine, noted that clinic providers ask detailed questions about the traveler's itinerary: length of stay, planned activities, and accommodations. During these comprehensive sessions, the medical team focuses on the three travel interventions: vaccines, malaria and other vector-borne disease prevention, and diarrheal disease mitigation. By addressing these essential areas, the clinic ensures that travelers are well-protected against the most common international health threats, according to Tafes. “The idea is to keep everyone healthy during travel.”

Travel Clinics also provide counseling customized to meet the conditions of each destination. For instance, a service member conducting outdoor fieldwork in Eastern Europe might receive the tick-borne encephalitis vaccine, while families heading to Japan or Korea for a PCS are counseled on the Japanese encephalitis vaccine.

“For example, I had one guy who was in Eastern Europe doing tick surveillance and there's something called tick-borne encephalitis there. This guy is a good candidate for tick-borne encephalitis vaccine that not everybody gets. He's trying to collect ticks so he's certainly at risk,” said Mancuso.

For others embarking on safaris, for instance in Tanzania, Kenya, or South Africa, providers discuss malaria medications and diarrhea treatments. For other locations, the team advises on high-altitude sickness, treating clothing with insect repellent, using bed nets, and use of the U.S. Department of State’s Safe Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for security.

"We shape our clinical encounter according to the exposures suggested by the patient’s itinerary, medical history, and other health concerns or questions," Mancuso noted, explaining that a week-long tourist vacation requires a different medical strategy than an extended stay visiting friends or relatives in a rural village.

Mancuso mentioned other medical risk factors that need mitigating. “There's a whole other set of things that we worry about, such as post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV prevention among healthcare providers doing overseas medical missions,” said Mancuso.

One of the biggest hurdles to pre-travel care is simply finding the time to visit a clinic. In the Preventive Medicine Travel Clinic, this barrier is reduced by offering its appointments via telehealth. Patients can conduct their comprehensive counseling sessions from their home or office (if it’s work related). Once the virtual appointment is complete, the clinic sends the necessary prescriptions and vaccine orders to the military treatment facility closest to the patient's location. Travelers then go to their local clinic to pick up medications and receive their shots when most convenient for them, making the entire process seamless.

To ensure a smooth experience, it’s recommended that appointments are booked early, ideally three to four weeks before departure, because some vaccines require time to build immunity before they are fully effective.

Additionally, travelers should gather their physical vaccine records and have them ready at hand during the clinic visit. While military personnel usually have up-to-date electronic medical records, civilian dependents and retirees might not, and having these records available avoids unnecessary vaccinations. To make an appointment or learn more about each of the hospital’s pre-travel services, please see the information:

1. Preventive Medicine: Open Monday through Friday, serving travelers 2 years and up, and offering both virtual and in-person appointments. For more information, call 301-400-0075.
2. Adult Infectious Diseases: Open Monday through Friday, serving travelers 2 years and up, and offering both virtual and in-person appointments. For more information, call 301-295-6400.
3. Allergy & Immunology: Open Wednesday evenings only, serving travelers 2 years and up, and offering both virtual and in-person appointments. For more information, call 202-525-8129.
4. Pediatric Infectious Diseases: Open Monday through Friday, serving travelers 18 years old and under, offering in-person appointments only. For more information, call 301-295-4959.

By offering multiple avenues for pre-travel care, Walter Reed upholds its commitment to ensuring the health and readiness of the entire military community, wherever their travels may take them. For more information on the STEP program, visit https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/smart-traveler-enrollment-program.html.

Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to update relevant contextual details.