Many Australians are not adequately protecting themselves against potentially serious infectious diseases before travelling abroad, researchers have found.

In collaboration with biopharmaceutical company CSL, the study involved 100 GPs throughout Australia who surveyed 2934 patients' travel patterns and travel health behaviours.

They found that 57% of those surveyed did not seek pre-travel health advice prior to international travel, despite having travelled to an at-risk destination for contracting at least one of the travel-related infectious diseases included in the study.