Status: Active
Date issued: 31 May 2024
Issued by: Dr Clare Looker, Chief Health Officer
Issued to: Victorian community and health professionals
Key messages
- Victorians planning overseas travel should ensure their routine vaccinations are up to date. This includes vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases that may be more common in the countries that they are visiting.
- Travellers should seek advice from a General Practitioner (GP) or a travel health professional 6-8 weeks before travelling to determine which vaccinations are needed. This includes anyone travelling to visit friends and family, or people travelling to their country of birth.
- Measles infections acquired during international travel are a significant source of measles cases in Australia. Travellers should all ensure they have received two doses of measles-containing vaccine. Any international travel puts you at risk of getting measles.
- Timor-Leste had previously been considered rabies-free, however an outbreak of rabies in the neighbouring Indonesian province of West Timor has now spread to Timor-Leste. Travellers to countries with rabies, including Timor-Leste, should be assessed for rabies vaccination.
- Any returned traveller who develops illness after returning home (such as a fever, new rash or diarrhoea) should seek medical advice.
- Read the full advisory, Health advice on immunisations for travel, on the Department’s website.
