Background: The number of international travels has grown substantially over the last decade, both globally
and in Poland. Thousands of Poles travel to tropical or subtropical countries in Asia, Africa or South America
each year. The aim of this paper was to discuss the characteristics of Polish travellers seeking pre-travel
consultation at the largest diagnostic and treatment travel medicine clinic in Poland.
Materials and methods: This retrospective study was based on the analysis of medical records of 1291
patients seeking pre-travel advice at the University Centre of Maritime and Tropical Medicine in Gdynia,
Poland, between 1 July and 31 December 2022. The study comprised the analysis of the following patient
variables: age, sex, travel details (purpose and length of travel, continents and countries to be visited,
activities planned). The study also aimed to evaluate the range of prevention measures which were recommended/
administered (preventive vaccinations, chemoprophylaxis). In addition, it assessed the health
status of the patients presenting at the travel medicine clinic.
Results: Patients who sought pre-travel advice were mostly people aged 18–35 years old (50.1%), travelling
for tourism (72.2%), for a maximum period of 4 weeks (85.0%), travelling in December (24.3%) or in November
(22.2%). Most of the Polish travellers consulted at the clinic travelled to Asia (56.2%), mainly to Thailand (27.3%),
Vietnam (10.8%) or India (8.7%). Most travellers were planning a beach holiday (56.4%). As regards extreme
activities, scuba diving was the most popular among the patients involved in the study (22.5%). The most frequently
administered immunoprophylaxis were vaccines against typhoid fever (76.3%) and hepatitis A (56.2%).
Other commonly recommended/prescribed prevention measures included: probiotics (75.9%), repellents
(73.6%), antimalarial drugs (60.9%), and antidiarrheal antibiotics (51.9%). The analysis of patient interviews
demonstrated that 42.4% of Polish travellers consulted at the clinic complained of no medical problems while
36.0% were taking chronic medications, mainly for allergies (17.1%) or thyroid disorders (12.2%).
Conclusions: A growing number of people from Poland travel to destinations where the risk of infectious
disease exposure or transmission is high. Providing a patient with appropriate advice during a pre-travel
consultation will help protect the traveller against travel-associated risks at their intended destinations.