Passport to Protection: Best Practices for Travel Vaccines in the Pharmacy Setting

Now that the summer is upon us, many people are turning their attention to vacation planning. Pharmacy team members can do many things to help our patients prepare for their upcoming travels, ensuring they are up to date with the recommended vaccines.

Pharmacy team members can help patients prepare for upcoming travels, ensuring they are up to date with the recommended vaccines for their locations. | Image Credit: Aron M - Austria - stock.adobe.com

Whether traveling domestically or internationally, it is important to put in place processes to ensure that comprehensive recommendations are made to the patients we serve. When making recommendations for your patients, knowing what resources are available is important. The first resource is the CDC’s Yellow Book.¹ It is available online and covers a wide range of topics to help prepare for travel, including recommended vaccinations, medications for disease prevention or treatment, and other measures to put in place to protect oneself during travel. The Immunization Action Coalition also has a travel vaccine section on its website with many resources.²

Another extremely valuable resource is the travelers’ health section of the CDC website.³ A feature on this website is that it has a drop-down box where the destination can be selected. The site also includes any travel health notices for the country.

Routine vaccination recommendations are also stated, followed by destination-specific vaccination recommendations. Information is provided on ways to avoid nonvaccine-preventable diseases, and other safety measures, including a “healthy travel packing list,” are also provided. Finally, a significant section that may be overlooked by many is “tips for after the trip,” which includes recommendations if the traveler becomes ill once returning home. If you are providing travel consultations in your pharmacy, it is extremely important to not only ask your patients where they are traveling to as their final destination but also if they have any stops, even if only for plane refueling. If the country has an endemic disease and you are not vaccinated against it, particularly yellow fever, there is the possibility that you may have issues when entering the country of your final destination.

Depending on the pharmacy practice act for your state, you may or may not be able to provide all vaccinations recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It would be advisable to work with a prescriber in your area to either develop a collaborative practice agreement as allowed by laws in your state or to collaborate on individual referrals.

There are multiple vaccines that would be recommended for travel, even domestic travel. The vaccine-preventable disease that has been in the news most recently is measles. Patients should receive the measles,mumps, and rubella vaccine if they are not already vaccinated or have other evidence of immunity. Parents may consider having their child vaccinated early if the child is 6 to 11 months of age and travel is planned, but the child would still need the 2-dose series at the appropriate ages.⁴ The yellow fever vaccine is also recommended when traveling to certain countries in South America and Africa.⁵ Unlike other vaccines, this one is provided at specific clinics, and a yellow card is stamped and provided to the patient post vaccination. Hepatitis A and hepatitis B are both diseases where vaccination is now part of the routine childhood schedule; however, many older adults may not be up to date with these vaccines, and thus, both are recommended for travel to many locations. Finally, the typhoid vaccine may be recommended when traveling to certain locations. There is a live attenuated oral version and an inactivated intramuscular injection. The oral formulation involves 4 doses, with 1 dose administered every other day until completion.⁶

There are varying levels of involvement that you can have in your pharmacies, from dispensing oral medications to patients before travel to providing routine and/or travel vaccinations to providing comprehensive travel consultations. Advertise in your community to ensure that your pharmacy becomes the go-to place before patients go on their adventures.

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REFERENCES

1. CDC. Yellow Book. 2026 Edition. Updated April 23, 2025. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/index.html

2. The Immunization Action Coalition. Travel Vaccines. Updated October 11, 2024. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://www.immunize.org/vaccines/travel-vaccines/

3. CDC. Travelers’ Health. Updated October 11, 2024. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

4. CDC. Plan for Travel. Updated July 15, 2024. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/travel/index.html

5. CDC. Yellow Fever Vaccine. May 15, 2024. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-fever/vaccine/index.html

6. CDC. Typhoid and Paratyphoid Fever. Updated April 23, 2025. Accessed May 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/travel-associated-infections-diseases/typhoid-and-paratyphoid-fever.html