Counseling the HIV Antibody Positive Traveler Relative to Immunization Protection and Malaria Prophylaxis

The principal concern relating to international travel by those infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the impact that such activities might have on their health, not the threat such travel could theoretically impose on others. Since there continues to be no evidence of nonspecific transmission of HIV through casual contact, insect bites, or foodborne, waterborne, or other environmental mechanisms [1], travel on public conveyances by infected individuals as well as their eating in restaurants and residing in hotels does not create a risk for others. The risks of travel depend on the severity of clinical illness, and would be directly proportional to the progression of symptoms and inversely related to the number of circulating CD-4 cells. Regardless, all HIV-infected travelers are exposed to a variety of real and theoretical risks, and many of these can be reduced by both vaccine administration and prophylactic medication.