Abstract

Background: People living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), form an important subset of international travel lers. In order to understand the challenges faced by health professionals advising travellers living with HIV, this survey reviewed calls to NaTHNaC's advice line regarding PLWHA, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2024.

Methods: Telephone advice line data relating to PLWHA, between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2024, were extracted from the online data entry system (Formic Healthcare). The extracted information was ana lysed using Microsoft excel; summary statistics were produced for all relevant variables.

Results: During the 5 years analysis period a total of 15416 phone calls were made to the telephone advice line, 167 were related to PLWHA (1.08%); 48 calls during 2019 (28.74%), 13 during 2020 (7.78%), 9 during 2021 (5.39%), 24 during 2022 (14.37%), 34 during 2023 (20.36%) and 39 during 2024 (23.35%). There was a marked reduction in calls during the COVID-19 pandemic (see figure 1). 119 calls (71.18%) were about yellow fever vaccine and vaccines in general, 20% were about drug interactions between ART and malaria prophylaxis, and 8.23% of the phone calls were about malaria prophylaxis.

Conclusion: The findings reveal a need for better education and resources for healthcare professionals advis ing this group of travellers. The types and frequency, of enquiries while limited suggest a lack of confidence or need for reassurance among healthcare professionals when advising PLWHA travellers particularly regard ing yellow fever vaccination and drug interactions with ART.

doi.org/10.63721/25JPMIDT0111

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