Travel health
Travel prepared, not panicked
A structured pre-travel assessment against current national country guidance, malaria prevention matched to your actual itinerary, and a written advice pack you can take with you. One thing stated up front: we cannot vaccinate.
Fully online. Video consultation with Dr Qurbain, medication dispensed to your door, and no need to travel anywhere.
Going somewhere, and not sure what you actually need?
If any of these sound familiar, this consultation was built for you.
You want advice for your itinerary, not a generic country list.
You want to know what is essential and what is upselling.
You have left it slightly later than you meant to.
You want it written down before you fly.
Malaria risk is regional, not national. A country-level answer is not good enough.
Risk varies enormously within a single country — by region, by altitude, by season, by whether you are in a city or rural, and by whether you are staying overnight. An assessment based on the country name alone is inadequate, so yours is done country-by-country and region-by-region against the current national guidance, with the date of checking recorded.
The other thing that decides whether prevention works is the bit people stop doing: the continuation period after you get home. That is where most prophylaxis failures happen, and it is why your start and stop dates are written down rather than mentioned.
How it works
Four steps, all from home
Your itinerary, in detail
Countries and the regions within them, rural or urban, altitude, season, duration, accommodation and planned activities. Trekking, freshwater contact, animal contact, caves, occupational and sexual risk all change the advice.
Checked against current guidance
Your itinerary is assessed against the current national country guidance at the time of your consultation, and the date it was checked is recorded. Medical history, medicines, allergies, immune status and vaccination history reviewed.
Prescribing and advice
Malaria prevention chosen for your specific regions with the reason recorded. Travellers’ diarrhoea and altitude advice where your itinerary justifies it. Your GP is told what was prescribed, where you are going and when.
Your written pack, and your vaccine list
A written pack covering everything discussed, plus exactly which vaccines you must arrange elsewhere and by when — with enough lead time to complete the courses.
Malaria prevention: the part people get wrong
No prophylaxis is fully protective, and most failures happen after people get home. Your start and stop dates are given to you in writing for exactly this reason.
Before you go
Start on time
Prophylaxis is started the right number of days before departure for the medicine chosen, so you are protected on arrival.
While away
Take it as directed
Every dose, on schedule, alongside bite avoidance at dusk and overnight.
After you return
Keep taking it
The continuation period after you get home is mandatory and is where most prophylaxis failures occur. Stopping at the airport is the single most common mistake.
Up to a year after
Any fever is urgent
Fever up to a year after travel to a malarious area is a medical emergency. Seek urgent assessment and state your travel history.
What we can and cannot do
Within scope
- Structured pre-travel risk assessment against current country guidance
- Malaria prevention matched to your regions, plus bite-avoidance advice
- Travellers’ diarrhoea advice, and standby treatment where genuinely justified
- Altitude illness advice, and preventive medication off-label where the itinerary justifies it
- Written advice: food and water, insect bites, sun, road safety, sexual health, rabies avoidance, clot risk on long flights, insurance and entry health requirements
We cannot vaccinate
- Vaccines must be physically administered, and nothing in a video consultation substitutes for that
- You are referred to a travel clinic, a pharmacy travel service or your GP practice
- Yellow fever — only a registered Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre can give it and issue a valid certificate
- Rabies, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal ACWY for Hajj and Umrah, and routine boosters — all arranged elsewhere
- You are told precisely what you need and by when, so the courses can be completed in time
The honest version of malaria prevention
No prophylaxis is fully protective. Bite avoidance matters as much as the tablets — repellent containing 50% DEET, nets, and covering up. Your start and stop dates are given to you in writing, including the mandatory continuation period after you return, because that is where most failures occur. And the single most important thing you will be told: any fever up to a year after travelling needs urgent medical assessment, and you must state your travel history. Fever after travel to a malarious area is a medical emergency.
What we will not do, and why
Side effects, and what to do about them
Read
Two specific positions worth knowing before you book.
- One antimalarial is not prescribed by this service at all. Its neuropsychiatric risk profile needs a depth of psychiatric assessment and follow-up that a single remote consultation cannot assure. Where it is the right option for your destination, you are referred to a specialist travel clinic, and told why.
- Rabies post-exposure treatment is a medical emergency. If you have been bitten, scratched or licked on broken skin by an animal abroad, go to A&E or an urgent care service immediately — do not wait for a consultation with us.
- Standby emergency treatment of malaria is a specialist travel medicine decision and is not provided here.
- Standby antibiotics for travellers’ diarrhoea are prescribed only where the destination, remoteness and duration justify it, with written instructions on when to use them, when not to, and when to seek care instead.
- Metovia is not contactable as an emergency service while you are travelling. That is stated in your written pack.
When we will refer you instead
Who this service cannot treat, and why
Read
Travel medicine has a number of groups where the drug choices narrow sharply and specialist input is the right answer.
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding, or planning pregnancy during travel — malaria risk in pregnancy is high and the options are restricted. Referred to a specialist travel service and your GP
- Significant immunosuppression — HIV, transplant, chemotherapy, biologics, high-dose steroids, or no functioning spleen. Referred to a specialist travel clinic
- Complex or unstable long-term conditions, significant heart or lung disease, epilepsy, or psychiatric instability where it affects drug choice
- Expedition travel, high-altitude mountaineering, diving, or long-term expatriate travel
- Travel for medical treatment, or travelling on a complex medicine regimen
- Current fever or illness of uncertain cause — assessed before any travel advice
- Recent travel with fever, diarrhoea or jaundice — urgent same-day assessment, with malaria explicitly considered
- Not enough time before departure to complete the necessary vaccine courses — you need urgent specialist triage, not a routine appointment
- Children and anyone under 18
Travellers returning unwell are not managed remotely. You are referred for assessment, and malaria is always considered.
Usually a single episode
The full review and monitoring schedule
Read
Travel health is normally one consultation rather than an ongoing relationship. A pre-departure check is offered where vaccines or a course were still outstanding when we spoke, so nothing is left half-done. Your GP is told what was prescribed, where you are going, when you travel, any red flag found, and which vaccines you have been advised to obtain — so the practice can complete them.
What we can and cannot do
Stated plainly up front, because it determines whether this service is any use to you.
Our approach follows current national guidance. See the guidelines we work to.
Initial consultation
Your initial consultation is paid when you book, before the consultation, and is charged whether or not treatment is prescribed. A follow-up review is paid when it happens, and only if you or your doctor decide you need one.
Joining the waiting list is free. Medicine, if prescribed, is bought separately from the dispensing pharmacy and its cost is confirmed with you before you pay for each supply.
Video consultation, region-by-region risk assessment against current guidance, and the written advice pack including your vaccine schedule. Medication, where prescribed, is dispensed separately by a registered pharmacy and priced before you pay. Vaccines are not provided by Metovia.