Phuket Island & H1N1 – Still Travelling There? or not?

This is neither a post about my travel experience nor my collection of travel photos. This is something about my upcoming travel to Phuket Island that has been disturbing my mind recently.I’m still not decided whether we should stick on to our earlier plan to travel to Phuket Island this coming October… because of the highly contagious Influenza A H1N1! We bought the discounted air ticket from Air Asia early this year, just before the H1N1 virus outbreak in Mexico.

Now, the pandemic H1N1 is unstoppable in all parts of the world. Our Health Ministry advised us to try not to travel to those high pandemic countries which should include Thailand and Phuket Island. So, I had this question staying in my head now: “Should we go there?”

Off course, the H1N1 virus activity doesn’t seems to be slower here in Malaysia and the reported figure of 71 death cases due to the virus is even higher (I believe) than Thailand and Singapore, our Malaysian neigbours. But all of us worry not just about us. We worry about our family and children. According to the report, children below 5 years old are belonging to the high risk group for pandemic H1N1. Though we are not travelling with our children but risk of bringing home the virus is there.

We have also learned how to prevent the unstoppable spread of Pandemic H1N1. Here’s the Top 5 measures to control the spread of the H1N1 virus:

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water. Hand washing seems simple, but, remember, medical students actually are taught how to wash their hands, so make a real effort, because it’s a cheap, simple, and a highly effective way to prevent yourself from becoming infected with the H1N1 virus.
• Be careful touching your eyes, nose or mouth, because the H1N1 virus is often spread when a person touches a contaminated object and then touches his or her eyes, nose or mouth. Be particularly aware of door handles and computer keyboards, because these surfaces are almost impossible to keep free of a tough virus like H1N1.
• If possible avoid the company of people who are sick, especially if they are already suffering H1N1 Flu symptoms.
  However, if you are a care-giver be doubly vigilant about washing your hands and protecting yourself from infection.
• Cover your mouth and nose with 3-ply surgical mask when sneezing or coughing, or “sneeze in your elbow.”  
If you are sick, stay home from work, school, church, or other public places, because you will help prevent others from catching H1N1.  Essentially, be polite.
• Stay at home. If you live in a community where H1N1 has occurred, stay away from shopping malls, movie theaters, or other places where there are large groups of people.   Although, exercise is great for you overall,  gyms are perfect breeding grounds for viruses like H1N1 and you should probably avoid them if there is an ongoing outbreak of H1N1 Flu in your area.

With the above preventing measures, would it be enough for travellers? Anyway, the fatal rate of Influenza A H1N1 is still low if compared to other flu and Dengue fever. We should not be too worry about it. Since the new vaccine is now available, we hope everything would be under controlled or at least controllable by this October.

I love travel and I want to travel to Phuket Island! I just don’t want to celebrate our Malaysia’s 52th Merdeka Day tomorrow by only watching TV at home! – Travel Feeder.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.