Travel Health Clinic

Dr. Amanda Bergman has been a family physician at Menzies Medical Centre since 2010. She is currently completing the University of Minnesota’s Online Global Health Course. She is part of the Manitoba Travel Health Network, as well as the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) and has attended the Infectious Diseases Update 2016: International Medicine and Tropical Diseases conference. Dr. Bergman attends Manitoba’s Travel Health Conference annually.

Darlene Blatz is a registered nurse and recently completed her Travel Health 101 and attended the Manitoba Travel Health Conference, hosted by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Travel Health and Tropical Medicine Services, annually. Darlene is also a part of the Manitoba Travel Health Network.

Depending on travel location and medical needs, you may see the nurse or the physician.

On realizing that you would like some help with your plans for travel, please fill out the traveller health form and either:

• Fill out and submit online
• Print out and bring into the clinic
• Mail to the clinic (130-30 Stephen Street, Morden, MB R6M 2G3)

If you do you not have internet access you can either:

• Call the clinic (204) 822-4474 and request that a form be mailed/emailed to you
• Come to the clinic and request a form at reception.

If you’d like to contact the Travel Health voicemail and receive a call back, you may do so by calling (204) 822-4474 and selecting option 4.

This form helps us plan for your visit and tailor the advice to your situation. This will include details of your visit, how long, where to and previous travel history. It will also include a brief history of your current and past medical history. This is very important in assessing your risks and how best to advise you. Once we receive your completed form, you will be contacted to set up an appointment. No appointments will be made prior to receiving your completed travel health information form.

It is our aim to stock a variety of vaccines at the clinic. We can provide you with the costs of the vaccine at the time when your appointment is booked. 

For those vaccines not stocked due to low volume use, we will provide you with a prescription for them that you can take to your local pharmacy. As well, while most private health insurance policies do not cover travel vaccines, some do. If you do have coverage for them you will be provided with a prescription for all self-pay vaccines to take to a pharmacy so you can get them covered.

Depending on how many people are part of your appointment (ie. one or two people vs a family or group) you should expect to be between 60 and 90 minutes at the clinic. Please ensure that you have allowed enough time for your other commitments. We often see families but each member of the family is treated as an individual.

The most common are probably the ones you don’t think about and they are free! The clinic will make sure that you are up-to-date with those vaccinations covered by Manitoba Health, such as Tetanus or Influenza.

The next most commonly requested are for Hepatitis A and B. Hepatitis B is a dangerous viral infection of the liver that can result in death for up to a third who contract it. They may also develop liver failure or liver cancer years later. It can be caused by contact with the blood of someone who has the disease, with instruments not sufficiently sterilized, casual sexual contact, IV recreational drug use or even inadvertent contact with a used needle while walking on the beach. All children in Manitoba are offered this vaccination in Grade 6.

Hepatitis A is less dangerous but more common. It is likely to make you yellow and sick for a few months and will spoil your post vacation relaxation! It is contracted with contaminated water either in the ice cubes, swimming in contaminated water, or food prepared improperly.

Vaccinations for Typhoid Fever is often recommended for people going off the beaten path, remote locations or where hygiene is less than desired. Again, this is contracted orally. The vaccination can either be by needle or by a series of oral capsules.

Yellow Fever is a tropical disease caused by a virus transmitted by a specific mosquito. It causes a serious illness with a fatality rate as high at 60%. Thankfully it is only found in certain locations. However it is one of the few vaccinations that is legally mandated in certain countries. It can also be required if you are entering a country, within 7 days, of leaving a country with a past history of yellow fever. The vaccination attracts its own certificate and can only be given in registered clinics.

*Currently there is a worldwide yellow fever vaccine shortage. Accommodations will be made to provide your vaccine at another Travel Health Clinic. The details are complicated and change all the time and so your detailed itinerary is important. Failure to get this vaccination, when required, may entail a quarantine of 7 days when entering a country.

Some other vaccinations include polio, for specific risk countries, Meningococcal vaccine, especially for sub Saharan Africa. There are some who may require more rare vaccines, such as against Rabies or Japanese Encephalitis. Again their need or recommendation will follow a risk assessment with you.

Unfortunately there is yet to be an effective vaccine for protection against Malaria, an infection with a single cell organism, transmitted by a specific group of mosquitoes. The oral antimalarial recommendation of what to take will depend both on your preference and what is known to work in that location. Again this is a changeable area of information.

*Information on the yellow fever shortage updated September, 2018

There are a lot of other infections, other risks and potential dangers that are not covered by a vaccination. There are the challenges of a high altitude vacation in Peru or Nepal, mountain trekking in central Europe, diving the Barrier Reef. There are the illnesses from eating carnivore fish, mosquito illnesses found in Central America and even now into the southern USA. There are risks of driving a motorbike in Bermuda or Mexico. What to do if you are bitten by a monkey in Thailand, a bat in east Africa or a dog in China. What to do if that diarrhea does not want to stop, where and when to seek help. All of these are possible topics depending in where you are heading.

Travel Health Fees current as of January, 2018 (reviewed annually)

Currently we accept Cash, Debit and Credit. All payments for travel health visits must be paid in advance of visit.

Travel Health Fees

Fees are dependent upon destination, complexity and number of people