BHUBANESWAR: Expanding its healthcare service facility, the AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday inaugurated a first-of-its-kind ‘Travel Health Clinic’.The special clinic will run twice a week and provide imminent travellers with essential vaccination services including certain country-specific vaccines.
Executive director and CEO of AIIMS Bhubaneswar Dr Ashutosh Biswas said the dedicated clinic will provide travellers with essential vaccination services and country-specific vaccines such as yellow fever vaccine and give advice regarding healthy behaviour during travel, assembling a customised medical kit for use in emergencies along with other ‘dos and don’ts’ during the period.
“On average, there are 3,500 beneficiaries of yellow fever vaccine in our yellow fever vaccine clinic,” Biswas informed. Medical superintendent Dr Dillip Kumar Parida said being the state immunisation officer, he used to get a lot of calls and queries from people regarding travel advice. “People will now have somewhere to go and a team of health professionals to counsel,” he said.
Airport public health officer Dr Biswaranjan Dash insisted on the importance of continued surveillance at the prominent points of entry into Odisha, especially Biju Patnaik International Airport in the state capital and the Paradip Port to prevent the introduction of ‘foreign’ infectious agents through unaware passengers.
Family welfare director Dr Bijay Kumar Panigrahy, also said that the facility will boost the economic growth and tourism industry of the state.