Planning an international adventure from St. Albert? Before you start packing your suitcase, checking your passport and deciding how many snacks are reasonable for a flight, there is one important item to add to your pre-travel checklist: your travel health plan.

Whether you’re heading to a sunny resort, visiting family overseas, travelling for work, exploring Southeast Asia or setting off on an African adventure, your destination can come with health considerations that are easy to overlook.

That is where Virtual Travel Clinic can help.

With a virtual travel health consultation, you can meet with a Travel Medicine Professional online from the comfort of your home in St. Albert. Your destination, itinerary, planned activities, medical history and immunization history can all be considered when creating personalized travel health recommendations. 

Less time driving to a clinic. More time getting excited about your trip.

Your St. Albert Travel Clinic, Without the Drive

Getting ready for an international trip already comes with plenty of errands.

Flights? Booked.

Hotel? Booked.

Passport? Hopefully not expired.

Travel health appointment? You can take care of that online.

Virtual Travel Clinic offers virtual travel medicine consultations for Canadians, with appointments available seven days a week, including mornings and evenings. This means St. Albert travellers can fit travel health planning around work, family and everything else on the calendar.

How the process works

The consultation itself is virtual, while vaccination administration and medication dispensing are handled through local pharmacy services. 

Travel Vaccines: What Do You Need?

There is no universal travel vaccine checklist that applies to every traveller.

Your recommendations depend on where you are going, what you will be doing and your individual health history.

For example, someone staying at an all-inclusive resort may have very different travel health considerations from someone backpacking through rural areas, visiting friends and relatives or spending several weeks outdoors.

During your consultation, a Travel Medicine Professional can consider:

• Your destination
• Specific cities or regions you are visiting
• Length of your trip
• Planned activities
• Accommodation
• Previous vaccinations
• Medical history
• Current medications
• Individual health considerations

This helps create a travel health plan based on your actual trip instead of a generic list of vaccines. 

Travel vaccines may include:

• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis A and B combination vaccination
• Typhoid
• Yellow Fever
• Japanese Encephalitis
• Rabies
• Meningococcal vaccines
• Polio
• Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis
• Measles, mumps and rubella
• Influenza
• Cholera and ETEC

Not everyone needs every vaccine. Your Travel Medicine Professional can determine which vaccines and medications may be appropriate based on your destination, activities and medical history. 

Travel Prescriptions for St. Albert Travellers

Travel health planning isn’t just about needles.

Depending on your destination, you may also need to consider prescription medications to help prevent or manage certain travel-related illnesses.

Virtual Travel Clinic provides prescriptions for travel vaccinations and medications when medically appropriate. Your consultation can also include recommendations for appropriate over-the-counter medications to consider bringing with you. 

Malaria Prevention

Travelling somewhere where malaria is present?

A malaria consultation can assess your destination-specific risk and discuss preventive medications and mosquito protection strategies.

Virtual Travel Clinic offers a specialized malaria consultation for travellers who need malaria prevention advice and medication. 

Traveller’s Diarrhea

Traveller’s diarrhea is one of the most common illnesses experienced abroad.

A dedicated traveller’s diarrhea consultation can help you prepare for gastrointestinal illness, including prescriptions when medically appropriate and recommendations for over-the-counter medications to keep in your travel kit. 

Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever vaccination may be recommended or required depending on your destination and itinerary.

Virtual Travel Clinic offers specialized Yellow Fever consultations that can assess eligibility, discuss the vaccine and provide an exemption certificate where applicable. 

Altitude Sickness

Planning a high-altitude adventure?

Virtual Travel Clinic offers a specialized consultation focused on altitude sickness and preventing Acute Mountain Sickness. 

Resort Travel

Heading somewhere sunny?

Even an all-inclusive holiday can come with travel health considerations. Virtual Travel Clinic offers a specialized Resorts consultation for travellers staying at all-inclusive resorts and hotels. 

Where Are You Travelling From St. Albert?

Your destination makes a difference.

A trip to a major European city is very different from a multi-country adventure through Southeast Asia. A family visit may look completely different from an African safari.

Visiting friends and relatives?

Travellers visiting family overseas may spend more time in local communities or homes rather than traditional tourist accommodation. Longer stays and different activities can also affect travel health recommendations.

Heading to Africa?

Depending on the countries and regions you visit, your consultation may include discussions about malaria prevention, Yellow Fever, mosquito protection, food and water safety and other destination-specific risks.

Exploring Asia?

Your itinerary may include multiple countries, rural areas, cities or outdoor adventures. Each can come with different health considerations.

Taking a tropical holiday?

Sunshine and a swim-up pool sound pretty perfect, but tropical destinations can still involve risks from mosquitoes, food and water and vaccine-preventable illnesses.

Travelling for work?

Business travel often means tight schedules. A virtual appointment makes it easier to fit travel health planning into your workday.

Your destination is only one piece of the puzzle. Your itinerary matters too.

Why Choose Virtual Travel Clinic in St. Albert?

Traditional travel clinics can be useful, but getting to one is not always convenient.

Virtual Travel Clinic was created to make specialized travel medicine easier for Canadians to access.

No commute

Your consultation happens online, so you can prepare for your trip from home in St. Albert.

No waiting room

Meet with a Travel Medicine Professional virtually instead of spending extra time travelling to an appointment.

Specialized travel medicine expertise

Virtual Travel Clinic’s care team includes Registered Nurses with more than 100 hours of travel-specific training. Travel health plans are reviewed by a certified travel doctor, and the clinic follows standards informed by the International Society of Travel Medicine. 

Destination-specific recommendations

Your travel health plan is based on your itinerary, planned activities and medical history rather than a one-size-fits-all checklist. 

Prescriptions and pharmacy referrals

When medically appropriate, prescriptions can be provided for travel vaccines and medications. Virtual Travel Clinic can also provide referrals to pharmacies in your area that have the necessary vaccines and medications in stock. 

Flexible appointments

Appointments are available online seven days a week, including mornings and evenings. 

When Should St. Albert Travellers Book a Travel Clinic Appointment?

We recommend booking your travel health consultation 2 to 4 weeks before departure whenever possible.

This gives you time to review your vaccination history, discuss destination-specific risks, arrange recommended vaccines and prescriptions and prepare for your trip.

Some vaccinations require multiple doses or time to provide protection, so earlier planning can be helpful.

Leaving sooner?

Don’t panic.

Last-minute travel does not mean you should skip travel health planning.

Virtual Travel Clinic encourages last-minute appointments because some protection is better than none. Recommendations can be customized based on how much time you have before departure. 

So if your flight is next week and your travel health checklist is looking a little lonely, there may still be important steps you can take.

What Happens During a Virtual Travel Health Consultation?

A travel consultation is about more than simply choosing a few vaccines.

Your Travel Medicine Professional will look at your travel plans alongside your individual health information.

Your appointment may cover:

Destination assessment

Where are you going? Are you visiting one city or several regions?

Itinerary review

Are you staying in hotels, visiting family, backpacking, camping, working abroad or taking part in outdoor activities?

Health history

Your medical history, medications and previous immunizations can influence your travel health recommendations.

Vaccination recommendations

Your Travel Medicine Professional can determine which vaccines may be recommended or required for your trip.

Travel medications

When medically appropriate, prescriptions can be provided for certain travel-related medications.

Practical travel advice

You can also receive education about destination-specific precautions, including food and water safety and other ways to reduce your risk of illness abroad. 

The goal isn’t to give every traveller every vaccine.

It’s to help you understand what makes sense for your specific trip.

Your St. Albert Travel Health Checklist

Before you trade Alberta for somewhere across the globe, add these items to your pre-travel checklist:

And yes, checking your passport expiration date is still important.

Travel Health Advice Backed by Experience

Virtual Travel Clinic is powered by Rockdoc, a Canadian medical organization. The Virtual Travel Clinic website states that the broader organization has provided 200,000+ medical consultations. 

That figure refers to medical consultations provided by the broader organization, rather than 200,000 Virtual Travel Clinic travel consultations specifically.

The Virtual Travel Clinic team includes Registered Nurses with specialized travel medicine training, and travel health plans are reviewed by a certified travel doctor. 

The clinic also states that its care follows International Society of Travel Medicine standards and that it is proudly Canadian-owned. 

For travellers, that means convenient virtual access backed by a team with specialized travel medicine experience.

FAQ’s