If you’re sick, stay at home; but, the worse thing that could happen is getting flu at destination when traveling. You probably suffer much more than you can enjoy the trip. What can you do about it?
Get A Flu Vaccine
Flu can cause mild to severe illness, and sometimes to death. Precaution first! Getting a flu vaccine before you travel to prevent it. Visit a polyclinic or any other private clinics for advice and vaccination.
You should also know, for preventing getting a flue, you can get flu by just touching a surface or object that has flu virus on it and then touching your own mouth, eyes or possibly your nose. So, keep a good habit of washing your hands before having meals and do not touch your mouth, eyes or nose.
Other preventive actions against getting flu include:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. This will block the spread of droplets from your mouth or nose that could contain germs.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs spread this way.
- Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
- If you or your child gets sick with a respiratory illness, like flu, limit contact with others as much as possible to help prevent spreading illness. Stay home (or keep your child home) for at least 24 hours after fever is gone except to seek medical care or for other necessities. Fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.
- If an outbreak of flu or another illness occurs, follow public health advice. This may include information about how to increase distance between people and other measures.
You can find out more here (PDF).
Avoid Flu Seasons
First of all, you need to find out when is the flu season in your destination; a handy tool is Flu Trends provided by Google. Suppose you are to visit Japan, you can view the flu trends with this tool:
In the worse scenario, if you get sick in a strange country, do not hesitate to consult a local doctor if you feel it’s getting worse. And, consider buying a travel insurance before you travel; it doesn’t cost much.