Health Information for Overseas Travel was first
issued in 1995 as a companion volume to the well established UK
Health Departments' memorandum Immunisation against Infectious
Disease (the 'Green Book'). It was well received, especially by
doctors and practice nurses giving travel health advice in primary
care, and is now commonly referred to as the UK 'Yellow Book'.
Since that first edition, there has been a major
increase in the amount of travelrelated information available
both to health professionals and travellers, in books, the media
and via the Internet. The origins and significance of the information
are not always clear, however, and the advice may not be consistent
with that usually given in the UK.
The aim of this book is therefore still relevant:
to provide a concise and authoritative onestop source of
information about the common health risks to travellers and how
to reduce them. It is not a statement of Government policy. It
is advisory rather than prescriptive, emphasising the need to
assess the risks for the individual traveller, while recognising
the limitations of the data on which such assessments sometimes
have to be made. Risk behaviours are also discussed, and emphasis
put on measures travellers themselves can take to protect their
health abroad.
Further sources of advice are provided for more specialised
problems outside the scope of this book.
We
have
pleasure
in
commending
the
book,
and
thank
the
editors,
Dr
Gil
Lea
of
the
Public
Health
Laboratory
Service
Communicable
Disease
Surveillance
Centre,
and
Dr
Jane
Leese
from
the
Department
of
Health,
for
their
work
in
updating
the
information
for
this
edition.
| 
