Danger alert over end to free holiday jabs

Britain faces a flood of contagious diseases if free vaccines for travellers are withdrawn.

Doctors warn that the Government's plan to stop free travel vaccines will land families with huge bills to safeguard them from foreign bugs.

They fear that the cost of at least pounds 32 per head will tempt travellers to skip vaccinations if they are forced to pay.

Without protection they will be vulnerable to killer viruses such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B and typhoid.

Just one vaccination can cost upwards of pounds 12, PLUS around another pounds 20 to pay for the doctor to administer it. Travellers will have pay for the whole family, or take the risk of going unprotected. Some will inevitably bring home infectious diseases.

Dr Ruban Prasad, acting chairman of the Overseas Doctors Association, said: "Malaria and hepatitis are the real dangers."

"Hepatitis causes more deaths than AIDS, and yet the illness is totally preventable. But if you ask people to pay, then you take a chance."

His organisation has already protested to Health Minister Tessa Jowell.

Many holidaymakers believe that only travel to long-haul destinations puts them at risk. But hepatitis A can be a danger much closer to home.

Travellers planning a long stay in Corfu, Crete, Cyprus, Ibiza, Italy, Majorca, Minorca, Greece, Portugal and Spain should all be vaccinated against it. And more exotic package destinations mean more people than ever are at risk.

A MORI survey last year showed that one in six adults in the UK had visited a high-risk or medium-risk country in the past five years. Yet the same survey showed that two-thirds of people would not have bothered with their recommended vaccinations if they cost pounds 60 or more.

High-risk countries include Egypt, the Gambia and Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco and Tunisia, Turkey, Israel, Thailand and China.

In most of these, there is a substantial risk' of typhoid and hepatitis A, and vaccinations are essential.

Most of these destinations also carry some risk of TB, diphtheria, hepatitis B and rabies. Vaccinations will sometimes be recommended by your GP or travel clinic.

Visitors to these destinations also risk malaria if they do not have a course of preventative tablets, which must already be paid for by the patient. The cost can mount to pounds 170 for a family.

Other high-risk destinations include Africa and India, while the Caribbean, South America and the Far East also pose a threat.

While the Government decides who should pay, GPs are split. It was their OWN grassroots organisation which first pressed the Treasury to consider scrapping free travel vaccines. But behind the scenes GPs are divided into two camps.

Those in favour of abolishing free vaccines believe that prevention costs more than the cure.

Those against abolition have argued that patients won't pay, and the number of people catching tropical diseases will rise sharply.

"People will not pay," says travel health expert Dr George Kassianos. "Doctors have voted for the worst deal for patients and themselves.

"The next thing will be the privatisation of childhood vaccines," he says. "It will be the beginning of NHS privatisation."

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