Flu / Swine Flu Prevention While Traveling.

All the steps you take at home -- washing your hands often with soap and water (or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer), coughing or sneezing into your elbow or a tissue, and avoiding sick people -- also apply when you're traveling.

While you're traveling, keep up to date with local health announcements and advisories in the area where you're staying.

Most people who've come down with swine flu have recovered without medical care. If you aren't pregnant or don't have a chronic medical condition and your flu symptoms are mild, you may not need medical care.

But if you are pregnant or have a chronic medical condition, contact a doctor at the first sign of flu symptoms, because you're in a high-risk group. Try calling or emailing your doctor first.


Children should get urgent medical attention if they have fast breathing or trouble breathing, have bluish or gray skin color, are not drinking enough fluid, are not waking up or not interacting, have severe or persistent vomiting, are so irritable that the child doesn't want to be held, have flu-like symptoms that improve but then return with fever and a worse cough, have fever with a rash, or have fever and then have a seizure or sudden mental or behavioral change.

Adults should seek urgent medical attention if they have trouble breathing or shortness of breath, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, confusion, severe or persistent vomiting, or flu-like symptoms that improve but then come back with worsening fever or cough.