Lorie Baker of Ventura didn't want a bout of malaria or other illness to ruin her 10-day vacation to Guatemala and Honduras, so she showed up at the Ventura County Public Health Travel Clinic in Oxnard recently to get some shots, prescriptions and advice to keep her healthy on her trip.

Baker, who had a full course of travel immunizations before a 2004 trip to Paraguay, spent about 45 minutes consulting with Carol Cutright, one of two public health nurses who staff the clinic, to find out what she might need for her next excursion.

Before she left, Baker received a booster shot to protect against hepatitis A; an inoculation against typhoid; prescriptions for malaria medication and Cipro, an antibiotic used to treat "Montezuma's revenge," or traveler's diarrhea; and a host of tips on foods to avoid, mosquito protection and more.

"This is good," Baker said of the clinic. "You know you're going to get everything you need."

The travel clinic serves dozens of Ventura County vacationers each week, prepping them for trips to Central and South America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere. Cutright and her colleague, Dona Jones, dispense vaccinations, prescriptions and advice using guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many local doctors refer their patients to the specialized clinic because the nurses are up to date on the latest recommendations for travelers and have the needed vaccines on hand. Travel vaccinations are not usually covered by insurance, so the clinic operates on a fee-for-service basis. The vaccines vary in price, but most are $75 to $90.

The clinic's main office is at the Public Health Clinic in Oxnard, but the travel nurses also see patients in Ventura on Thursdays and in Simi Valley every other Monday.

Bulletin boards on the walls of the two examination rooms at the Oxnard clinic display postcards and photographs from patients' exotic excursions to locales such as Mount Kilimanjaro, Thailand, Costa Rica, Fiji and Iguassu Falls.

Cutright sees as many as 10 people a day who are planning travel to Asia, Africa and Central America. Many are vacationers, but she's also seeing an increasing number of families gearing up for a foreign adoption trip or young people traveling to Africa or elsewhere to volunteer or do mission work.

Just about everybody who comes in needs at least one inoculation. Tetanus is the most common.

"We can catch them up on things," Cutright said. "It's a piece of public health people don't think about."

Nearly everything else is strictly a recommendation based on where the traveler is going and what preventable diseases might be found in that area. Yellow fever vaccinations are required for travel to parts of Africa and South America.

"It's just reviewing things that people might've forgotten," Cutright said. "A lot of people we see are regular travelers."

She and Jones are both experienced travelers, which makes it easy for them to develop a rapport with their patients. "They're doing interesting things; they're healthy; they're really interesting people," Cutright said.

Susan Walker of Ojai stopped in recently for a consultation in advance of a July trip to China and Singapore.

"You're not going to be hiking, camping or going on a river cruise?" Cutright asked.

"No, unfortunately there just isn't time," Walker answered, then followed up with several questions about food and eating.

Stay clear of tap water and ice, make sure that all your food is cooked through and served hot, and avoid fresh fruit unless you peel it yourself, Cutright advised.

"You're not going to want to eat at the street vendors, even though it smells so good," she said. "You don't know what it is."

Katie Steinke of Ventura stopped at the travel clinic on the referral of her physician before her trip to India last fall. The shots "are kind of expensive," she said, but worth it since she remained healthy for her entire eight-day trip.

"The food was different, but it was wonderful," Steinke said. "The whole experience was wonderful."