Travel Medicine Program

The International Clinic provides a family-oriented program to reduce the incidence of travel related illness. Most patients are from the international community of Boston Medical Center, where more than half of all children have at least one parent who was born outside the United States.

The Travel Medicine program provides:

  • Travel-specific immunizations
  • Information about prevention of malaria and other insect-borne diseases
  • Information about prevention and treatment of traveler's diarrhea
  • Education about prevention of other travel-related conditions
  • Hand-outs for patients to take with them outlining preventive measures they can carry out during their travels
  • Evaluation of travelers who develop illness during their travels

The Clinic also sees patients who may have become sick from travel abroad. These illnesses include parasitic infections and other conditions such as malaria, schistosomiasis and strongyloides, which may be unfamiliar to many American physicians. As patients are treated, close contact is maintained with each patient’s primary care provider.

For health information on international travel, see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Contact Us

850 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02118
6th Floor
Yawkey Center
617.414.4841

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 8:00 AM - 5:30PM Tuesday, Thursday 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM

Programs and Services

Research Overview

The Travel Medicine clinic is one of 5 travel clinics participating in the Boston Area Travel Medicine Network (BATMN), a research network of travel clinics funded with a cooperative agreement with CDC.

Research activities of the clinic include:

  • Studies on the effects of exposure to war and violence in refugee children
  • Assessment of immunity to hepatitis A in individuals from developing countries
  • Epidemiology of travel-related illness in urban multinational populations
  • Immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases among refugees
  • Response to vaccines in refugees
  • Seroprevalence of dengue antibody in travelers
  • Demographic analysis of travelers
  • Description of travelers visiting friends and relatives
  • Decision analysis for yellow fever vaccine
  • Hepatitis E and chikungunya virus antibody prevalence in travelers