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To err is human: Clinical incident calls to a national travel health advice line.

McCallum, Andrew D, Kanagarajah, Sanch, Ford, Lisa and Patel, Dipti (2019) 'To err is human: Clinical incident calls to a national travel health advice line.'. Vaccine, Vol 37, Issue 52, pp. 7535-7538.

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Abstract

The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) offers a telephone advice line for travel health practitioners in the UK. In this study we review clinical incidents concerning vaccines or malaria prophylaxis reported between 2016 and 2018. Two-hundred-and-fifty-one clinical incident calls were recorded, and commonly concerned scheduling or dosing errors. Vaccine scheduling errors accounted for 103 calls (41%), predominantly due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B vaccination either alone or in combination (65/103, 63%). Administration of yellow fever vaccine within 28 days of measles, mumps and rubella accounted for a further 15 (15%) calls. Twenty-six (10%) calls reported administration of a vaccine that was not recommended either for the destination or contraindicated in the traveller. Yellow fever was the commonest single vaccine discussed in 28.4% of vaccine clinical incidents reported. By highlighting common mistakes, we hope to raise awareness of common issues and improve practice in travel health.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: QW Microbiology and Immunology > Immunotherapy and Hypersensitivity > QW 805 Vaccines. Antitoxins. Toxoids
WA Public Health > Preventive Medicine > WA 108 Preventive health services. Preventive medicine. Travel Medicine.
WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 765 Prevention and control
Faculty: Department: Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.10.007
Depositing User: Julie Franco
Date Deposited: 07 Nov 2019 11:59
Last Modified: 24 Jan 2020 16:35
URI: https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/13036

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