Travel Advice

Services

TMB

TMB Newsletter

TMB News

Awards

  • Awards

Influenza: Winter Flu and H1N1 (Swine Flu)

'Winter' Flu vaccine advice

While awaiting the specific H1N1 Influenza A vaccine it is strongly advised that all individuals (not just those in particular higher risk groups) should receive the appropriate 'normal' Influenza vaccination. This should lower the amount of morbidity within any community and also, quite importantly, help protect against any misdiagnosis or confusion in international travellers.

TMB will have stocks of 'Winter' Flu Vaccine from the 16th September 2009. The price is €25 including the consultation fee. You can receive the vaccine by booking an appointment.We will also be annoucing a walk-in service on certain days.

On site service for companies

If your company wishes to provide the vaccine to your staff we can provide an on site vaccine service for groups of 20 or more. Please email miriam.edge@tmb.ie for further details.

Swine Flu (H1N1)

The latest information on the Vaccine: The first doses of H1N1 have arrived in the country but the wide spread availablilty of the vaccine is not expected until sometime in October

The international advice regarding the risks associated with contracting H1N1 Influenza, and how best to avoid it, is changing almost daily and so it really is difficult for those planning a trip abroad at this time. Should you go or should you stay? What can you do to lessen your risks and what happens if you suddenly find yourself ill overseas with a sore throat, high fever and muscle aches and pains? Should you carry self treatment in case you get ill while abroad?

While abroad, if you report any illness to the local health authorities they will almost certainly isolate you to lower any risk to others but where will you be sent and what healthcare can you expect to receive? What happens to your travelling companions? Should they be given treatment? Should they be allowed to continue with their trip or perhaps they too should be isolated and quarantined?

If you don't report it (either before you leave home or while abroad) and turn up at the airport trying to look healthy and well are you likely to go down in the history books as someone similar to a modern day 'Typhoid Mary' who spreads devastation and disaster everywhere you go? Could you live with yourself if you infected others and perhaps even some died?

For international travellers these are just some of the questions they need to face at this time. Being ill in your home country is one thing but getting such a potentially serious illness overseas in a strange country, where the healthcare system may be less than ideal, is not a pleasant thought.

The best estimates suggest that a specific vaccine against H1N1 Influenza A may be available internationally in mid to late Autumn. Prior to that there really is no way of ensuring you could not contract the illness - even here within Ireland. As with many respiratory illnesses (including the 'normal' human Influenza) there are a few simple ways to lessen your risks even if these do not provide perfect protection.

Respiratory diseases are usually coughed and sneezed from person to person. The range of this droplet spread depends greatly on a number of varying factors including the strength or the cough/sneeze, the proximity of the individuals and the blocking methods used (handkerchiefs, tissues etc) by the person themselves. Therefore staying away from individuals with symptoms makes sense where at all possible. Crowded places such as airports, planes, cinemas, markets, lecture halls and schools/nurseries are best avoided in the midst of any serious outbreak. Local transport on crowded buses and taxis are also commonly associated with disease spread.

Most of the available face masks usually only lessen the chance that you will cough infection out to others rather than specifically purify or filter the air that you breathe in yourself. Therefore giving masks to anyone with respiratory symptoms certainly does make sense to help the community but actually for the individual's own protection they would need  most specialised marks which clearly are designed to filter the air breathed.

The other major method of transmission is self induced. This is where there is personal hand contact with an infected individual or infected surface which then places the virus on the individuals hand and can then be all too easily moved to their mouth or eyes and thus allow the disease easy access to the body. Shaking hands has been discouraged in many countries as a way of lessening disease transmission but also opening doors, holding the escalator rail or pushing the buttons on lifts etc are all possible ways to allow your own hands become infected. Regular washing and the use of antiseptic gels has been long known to be very helpful to lower these risks.

However, trying to protect against this level of exposure is very likely to induce very severe paranoia in any community and you can easily imagine that many will become afraid even to venture outside their homes. This of itself could all too easily lead to more risk for the individuals especially in the older and more vulnerable individuals as we move into the colder damper winter months. Commonsense still has to prevail and it is essential that we maintain a high level of community awareness to ensure protection of the most vulnerable members of our society.

The specific vaccination is awaited throughout the world and of course there will be very serious competition (both between countries and also within any territory) for the initial batches of vaccines once they are produced. This is sure to cause much heartache and despair but it should be remembered that the more people who do receive the vaccine the less the global risk of contacting the disease in the first place. The effectiveness and safety of the initial vaccine will always be a question which needs to be answered but this is no different to the mid 1950's with the very urgent introduction of the Polio Salk vaccine in the midst of that horrific disease outbreak. That vaccine saved many lives and helped thousands avoid major handicap. The rushed introduction of H1N1 vaccination this Autumn will almost certainly run along similar lines.

So the question at this time is whether or not to travel. There is no one answer which covers every situation and so individuals will need to consider this through in detail depending on their actual plans. Certainly it is correct to state that if the individual themselves is showing any signs of possible infection with H1N1 Influenza A then they should seek urgent medical attention and do everything possible to avoid putting others at risk. These people should not travel but, providing they receive a medical certificate confirming the clinical diagnosis, they should be able to receive a reimbursement from their travel insurance company - assuming they did take out correct cover in the first place.

For others who are perfectly healthy and well it appears that the risks associated with contacting H1N1 Influenza A from international travel are approximately the same as if the individual stayed in their home country - assuming that the commonsense precautions mentioned above are followed. On this basis there appears to be a good general consensus among the international experts that these travellers should not alter their plans at this time and that they can proceed with their trip in the knowledge that this does not place them at any higher risk of contracting the illness.

There is a huge amount of information available on the Internet relating to H1N1 Influenza A and the varying approaches being recommended by international authorities to face this pandemic. Probably the most useful for Ireland are either the WHO site ( http://www.who.int/en/ ) or the Irish HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre's web site ( http://www.hpsc.ie/hpsc/ )