Bhubaneswar AIIMS Starts Odisha’s First Travel Health Clinic

Bhubaneswar: The AIIMS-Bhubaneswar has started first-of-its-kind ‘Travel Health Clinic’, which will run twice a week and provide imminent travellers with essential vaccination services, including certain country-specific vaccines.

Executive director and CEO of the premier health facility Dr Ashutosh Biswas said the dedicated clinic will provide travellers with essential vaccination services and country-specific vaccines such as yellow fever vaccine and give advice regarding healthy behaviour during travel, assembling a customised medical kit for use in emergencies along with other ‘dos and don’ts’ during the period.

“On average, the hospital receives 3,500 beneficiaries in its yellow fever vaccine clinic,” he said, while urging every traveler to seek travel-related health advice before the journey to avoid contracting and transmitting illnesses beyond national frontiers.

Medical superintendent Dr Dillip Kumar Parida mentioned that as the state immunisation officer, he used to get a lot of calls and queries from people regarding travel advice. “People will now have somewhere to go and consult a team of health professionals,” he said.

Airport public health officer Dr Biswaranjan Dash insisted on the importance of continued surveillance at the prominent points of entry into Odisha, especially Biju Patnaik International Airport in the state capital and the Paradip Port, to prevent the introduction of ‘foreign’ infectious agents through unaware passengers.

Family Welfare Director Dr Bijay Kumar Panigrahy added that the facility will boost the economic growth and tourism industry of the state.