H1N1 and travel

Currently the H1N1 is alive and well in China with 100,000 cases (vs. 22 million in the US) being reported by the Xinhua news service. Today's edition of the China Daily mentioned 800 severe cases in Beijing itself. In general this illness has been mild except in the elderly with medical problems (thing about any elderly relatives who may be accompanying you to help out on your trip), the very young and pregnant women.

Without a doubt the safest way to avoid H1N1 is to get vaccinated here stateside at least two weeks before you travel to allow your body time to develop the immunity needed to fight the H1N1 virus off. Frequent hand washing with soap and water or hand sanitizer (hanitizer as my daughter calls it) also helps. Also don't forget the regular flu shot.

Last month when I traveled to China I took two full courses of Tamiflu with us -1 for my wife who refused (read "stubborn") to get vaccinated and one for either my 4 year old traveling with us or the baby we were adopting. We didn't need to use either but were ready and no one I ran into seemed to need it as well. To help at all Tamiflu needs to be started within two days of the first symptoms appearing. The other thing you will note is a lot of Chinese wearing face masks even when they are well to prevent getting an infection. Although I think this is a hold over from the SARS epidemic of several years ago and has been shown in US studies to be fairly worthless. That being said, if it gives them peace of mind, let them wear masks. Given the level of smog in all the cities we traveled in, perhaps that is the real reason for the masks.

Speaking of peace of mind, last week I saw a gentleman in our Emergency Room who was worried about having H1N1 from what really seemed like a cold. I tried to reassure him that it wasn't but he was still anxious. Finally I asked what was driving his concern. It turns out a pregnant cousin of his had died a week ago in Puerto Rico of H1N1. So I got him the flu test (even though the test itself if only 60% accurate) since no amount of talking would provide him the peace of mind that the test would. It was negative--he went home to take Tylenol and push fluids.