Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
3393031 Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease 2014 7 Pages PDF
Abstract

SummaryBackgroundWe aimed to describe travel patterns, extent of professional pre-travel advice and health problems encountered during travel among HIV-infected individuals.MethodsDuring a six-month period a questionnaire was handed out to 2821 adult HIV-infected individuals attending any of the eight Danish medical HIV care centers.ResultsA total of 763 individuals responded. During the previous two years 49% had travelled outside Europe; 18% had travelled less and 30% were more cautious when choosing travel destination than before the HIV diagnosis. Pre-travel advice was sought by only 38%, and travel insurance was taken out by 86%. However, 29%/74% did not inform the advisor/the insurance company about their HIV status. Nearly all patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) were adherent, but 58% worried about carrying HIV-medicine and 19% tried to hide it. Only 19% experienced health problems during travel, 6% sought medical assistance and 0.5% was hospitalized.ConclusionsDanish HIV-infected patients travel frequently outside Denmark. Health and adherence to HAART were not major problems during travel. The main problems were failure to seek pre-travel advice, lack of disclosure of HIV status when seeking pre-travel advice or getting a travel insurance.

Related Topics
Life Sciences Immunology and Microbiology Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
Authors
, , , , , , , ,