If you are currently in Southeast Asia or plan to go there in the near future, then you should know that if you contract the flu there is between a 1 in 10 and a 1 in 5 chance that it will be the H1N1 virus. And, if you are going to be traveling through parts of Central Africa, then there is greater than a 1 in 3 chance that your flu will turn out to be H1N1.
Yes, despite the lack of media coverage, the H1N1 flu is still out there. So stay clean! Wash those hands, and make sure that you wash your vegetables. The use of Night Soil Fertilizer is widespread in China, as well as rural areas all over Southeast Asia . This means that everything you eat should be cooked. If you want to stay updated, then RSS feed the WHO website.
Here’s a more specific update for the Asian region, as provided by the WHO.
“In Asia, the most active areas of pandemic influenza virus transmission are in parts of South and Southeast Asia, particularly in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Malaysia, limited data suggests that a second period of active pandemic influenza virus transmission has been occurring since early April 2010, but overall activity may have recently stabilized and does not appear to exceed pandemic influenza activity seen during an earlier period of transmission lasting from July until early September 2009. In Singapore, levels of ARI have remained elevated since mid April 2010; during the most recent reporting week, levels of ARI exceeded the epidemic threshold and the proportion of patients with ILI testing positive for pandemic influenza virus infection was 39%. In Bangladesh increased co-circulation of pandemic influenza and seasonal influenza type B viruses has been detected since mid April 2010 but now appears to have stabilized. Low level circulation of pandemic influenza continues to persist in Thailand and in the western and southern parts of India; sporadic detection of pandemic influenza continue to be reported in Cambodia and in the Philippines. In East Asia, only sporadic detections of pandemic influenza virus are being reported; seasonal influenza type B viruses have been predominant in this region, however circulation appears to be declining in China and the Republic of Korea.”
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