Travel-medicine physician

I frequently travel to developing countries, including Kenya in August ’12. I have never found a truly competent doctor to advise me about travel vaccinations until now.

I’ve learned that travel medicine is a medical specialty and there are only a handful of such practitioners in the Southern California area. I now see a doctor who is board certified in travel medicine and has been working in this field for over 20 years. I highly recommend M. Peshimam, MD, CTH (10900 Warner Ave., Ste. 115, Fountain Valley, CA 92708; 714/968-8600).

My husband and I saw Dr. Peshimam twice in July. At our first meeting, he spent at least 30 minutes educating us about the side effects of our immunizations (we had four that day) and providing current data on places we would visit. He even contacted a doctor in Colorado who is an expert on Kenya and yellow fever. On our second visit, we had our final two shots.

The cost for both visits was $445 for each of us, of which our Blue Shield insurance paid $317. FYI, Medicare does not cover travel immunizations.

JANEEN CUNNINGHAM
Newport Beach, CA

“CTH” stand for Certificate of Travel Health. Two resources for locating a travel-specialist physician in your area are the International Society of Travel Medicine (Decatur, GA; 404/373-8282, click on “Global Travel Clinic Locator”) and the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (Deerfield, IL; 847/480-9592 — click on “Find a tropical medicine physician”).