Summer Travel Advice for Inflammatory Bowel Disease from IBD Passport
Kay Greveson Inflammatory Bowel disease nurse Specialist Royal Free Hospital, London
The time of year has come where you may be planning your summer vacation. Having Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis should not restrict you from travelling but the idea of planning a trip and uncertainties about changes in food and access to toilet facilities may often feel daunting. Careful planning of your vacation and consideration of key issues that may cause problems will ensure your trip goes as smoothly as possible.
The main problems that may occur when travelling with IBD are often caused by a flare of IBD symptoms, catching infectious diseases that are common to the destination and poor availability of healthcare in some overseas destinations. In this blog I give you my top tips and details of how I developed IBD Passport.
Developing IBD Passport
During my work as an IBD nurse, I found that patients were often not aware of where to obtain accurate advice to help them travel with IBD and they often received conflicting advice from their family doctor and IBD team. I decided to research this further and conducted research to explore the experience and preparation for travel with IBD. A total of 62% of patients in my research said that IBD limited travelling. Only 23% of patients sought pre-travel advice and only 40% obtained travel insurance to cover their IBD. The main reasons for this were not knowing where to obtain insurance or the excessive cost of premiums to cover IBD. I also found that 52% of patients taking immunosuppressant medication were not aware that they should not have ‘live’ vaccinations. This told me that there was a need for further education and information for people planning to travel and as a result of this I developed the IBD Passport website. The website was founded in 2014 and has over 1,000 users globally. IBD passport is the first non-profit website of its kind and aims to provide accurate and reputable information gathered from national & international IBD guidelines, published research, government publications and patient organisations to provide non-nonsense IBD-specific travel information. Registration is free but not necessary to see most of the information on the website.
Some of my top IBD travel tips taken straight from the website are below…
Vaccinations
If you are receiving immunosuppressive medication (such as corticosteroids, azathioprine or biologics), you may have an increased risk of catching some vaccine-preventable infections but your immune system may also have a lesser response to some vaccinations. If you are taking any of the medications previously mentioned, it is important to be aware that you should not have ‘live’ vaccinations as your immune system may be a little weaker than normal. You should plan at least 6 weeks ahead of your trip to ensure you have enough time to obtain travel advice from your IBD clinic and local travel clinic so that you are armed with the appropriate education and resources to stay healthy during your journey.
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is extremely important but something that many people may overlook or perhaps obtain with inadequate cover for their IBD. It is a good idea to ‘shop-around’ and get a good deal as some insurers will have lower premiums than others. As a general rule, insurance premiums will be higher when you have recently had surgery or have been hospitalised for a flare of your symptoms. Your age, travel destination and other medical conditions will also influence premiums. IBD passport has more advice about this and links to useful insurance companies in the UK. Other countries will be added soon or you can check with your local Crohn’s and Colitis patient charity.
Top Tips for travelling with IBD
- It is better to travel when your IBD is stable. This will prevent the risk of a flare-up and also reduce your insurance premiums.
- Always ensure you have adequate travel insurance to cover your IBD obtain an EHIC card for travel in Europe.
- Obtain a letter from your specialist outlining your medical history and medication to take on your trip and ensure you take an adequate supply of medication with you.
- Consider your travel destination. Take into consideration your current health and the facilities available in the country you are visiting.
- Do you need any vaccinations before your trip? You may need these up to 8 weeks before you travel so plan ahead and visit a travel clinic. You may also be taking medication that prevents you from having some vaccinations so you should check this out with your IBD clinic.
- Choose accommodation to suit you. Does it have a private or shared bathroom? If shared, is the bathroom on the same floor?
- Visit your local Crohn’s and colitis patient charity website and IBD Passport websites for details of travel insurance, tips on travelling with IBD and a multi-language ‘can’t wait card’ to take with you in case of toilet emergencies.
- Pack your medication and any medical supplies in an ‘emergency travel kit’. Pack this in your hand luggage and check with the airline for any product restrictions.
Register free with IBD Passport for lots of information including:
- Vaccination advice
- Interactive world-map with country-specific advice
- Details of IBD center’s globally who have registered with the site
- Practical advice for planning your trip
- Obtaining travel insurance,
- Obtaining healthcare overseas,
- Travel after surgery and with a stoma
- Diet and travel
- Managing travellers diarrhoea
And much more…!
