24 As highlighted by Helfenberger and colleagues,23 a potential contributory factor to the poor vaccination uptake by travelers may be the non-uniformity among international travel advisory guidelines regarding indications for influenza vaccination. If messages from advisory KU-60019 groups are contradictory, this can be confusing both for health professionals providing pre-travel advice

and for travelers. The WHO recommends that those travelers at higher risk traveling to the opposite hemisphere should have influenza vaccination.4 This is fairly consistent with WHO population-based recommendations for influenza vaccination.1 It is generally accepted that influenza immunization should also be considered for cruise ships, group tours, and during ABT-199 order other mass gathering events.25 However, apart from the general recommendations for travelers in high-risk population groups, specific recommendations for travelers are hard to come by. In Canada, the Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel (CATMAT) has recommended influenza vaccination for all healthy travelers, who will or could be exposed to influenza at the destination.26 In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recently voted in favor of universal influenza vaccination in that country.27 There a number

of useful influenza surveillance resources, which have been listed in Table 1. Not only is there variability in approaches for who should be vaccinated but a variety of influenza vaccines are available, including vaccines administered by the intramuscular, intradermal, and

intranasal routes. Another issue often raised when discussing influenza vaccination is that influenza viruses constantly evolve, and influenza vaccines need to protect against the principal strains of virus circulating at the time.4 These can differ between the northern and southern hemispheres and influenza vaccinations are modified approximately every 6 months in preparation for the peak influenza season in each hemisphere.4 Hence, an influenza vaccine from one hemisphere may only partially protect against the virus strains Thymidine kinase in the other hemisphere, depending on the constituent virus strains covered.4 There is a vaccine available for pandemic (H1N1) 2009, but not for avian influenza (H5N1).4 There is interest in making southern hemisphere seasonal influenza vaccines available to providers in the northern hemisphere and vice versa, but practical difficulties need to be overcome.28,29 Guidelines for chemoprophylaxis and presumptive self-treatment for influenza also differ among international travel advisory groups. Antiviral drugs are an important adjunctive preventive measure for the treatment and prevention of influenza,1 including pandemic (H1N1) 2009.