The world now holds few boundaries and many schools are heading significantly further afield as they seek to provide a more rounded educational experience for their students. This gives great opportunities to help show something of the wonders of the world to our younger generation as they enter this important time of their lives. Seeing and experiencing different cultures and understanding the way others live is recognised to be an essential element of education. However, leaving behind the security of our home situations and venturing into foreign lands potentially increases the risk of accidents or health problems and this needs to be carefully considered by those in charge of organising the trip. 

School trips take many forms nowadays including pure educational exposure (being with schools or health clinics overseas to see how they work), building and construction (actually being involved in manual labour), sports (of many different kinds but including contact sports such as rugby and hockey) and more pastoral/cultural trips (basically seeing something of the culture and scenery at their destination). These different types of trips all have varying health risks for the individuals and need to be considered when trying to assess what vaccines/malaria prophylaxis would be recommended 

The Tropical Medical Bureau has a range of group travel health services which will be of help to you as you organise your schools travel plans, including: 

• Discounts arranged for groups of 10 or more. 
• On-site consultation for large groups. 
• Group health advice, and safety guidelines, specific to your trip. 
• Education seminars on health issues related to travelling and working overseas. 
• Individual Post-Exposure consultations and advice where necessary. 

For more information, please contact us at groups@tmb.ie or Tel (01) 271 5200