Swine Flu Outbreak and Travel Insurance

[lovestotravel]

Yeti - Sorry to hear that

That is one downside of credit card insurance, the requirement to pay for the whole flight on the card!

Apply for the platinum charge card, you then don't need to spend anything travel related on the card to be covered

OR take out an annual travel insurance policy!

When are you scheduled to leave ?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

my travel insurance is with TID and just had a chat with them.

basically i'm not covered for cancellation AT THIS TIME since the government's warning has only been increased to reconsider. If it increased to DO NOT TRAVEL then I would be covered for all cancellation costs.

As it stands if I get sick, and can show i followed advice in the mass media etc, then I would be covered.

I would assume if the travel warning does get upgraded to do not travel before leaving australia that i would not be covered for most things inside mexico.

i suppose i'm more worried this time than when SARS was around as the flu is rather easy to spread.

After 12 yrs of southern hemisphere travel i finally decided to go north and look what happens

 

[mysavings789]

I don't think travel insurance will cover you in this case. Go and get vaccinated.

 

[beardoc]

I don't think travel insurance will cover you in this case. Go and get vaccinated.

The influenza vaccination for this year does not cover this particular strain of influenza. You can't get vaccinated against it.

 

[mysavings789]

^^^ oh sad to hear that..

 

[mysavings789]

good advise zan5hin:!:

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

I don't think travel insurance will cover you in this case. Go and get vaccinated.

as far as i could determine from my phone call i would be covered for any medical issues as the way things stand - current govt travel warning etc

i think the main caveat would be if i did something the mass media warned against.

my main worry is what happens if i'm there and things go down hill. if there's civil unrest or a state of emergency then ya sorta screwed. the thing with pandemics is they have exponential growth - a week can see 10 times or 100 times the infections.

fingers crossed it peters out.

 

[Alanslegal]

Now I can't get any travel insurance against swine flu, NOBODY will insure me. Tried Allianz/TID/QBE they all say if I booked it last week then I would have got it.

I purchased a TID yearly policy on 23/4/09 4pm (thanks to JohnK providing me a promo code) - hopefully I'm covered under TID as this outbreak was just commencing and didnt have a huge media splash about this back then. The WHO advised Australian authorities on 24/4/09 that an influenza outbreak is appearing within North America.

I also have complimentary ANZ Platinum CC insurance (as spending of $250+ prior) as a backup but as always when I travel remain optimistic that nothing unfortunate will happen to me - touch wood - and hope it remains this way.

As I'm at the point of no return and am flying out tomorrow, guess I'll be exercising extreme caution as recommended, and enjoy my holiday like its suppose to be. Apart from the remains of my lingering cold, my GP and eye surgeon have today given me the all clear to travel

With this being post #999 I'll see you and my 1,000th post in a future Trip Report :mrgreen: Till then - See You All Later!

 

[SnowYeti]

Good on you Alanslegal! I think you've done everything to cover. And yes the backup plan should work in any case ... just make sure you read the PDS ! properly! I love their fine print

Have a fun trip!

 

[notzac]

So, is now a bad time to have found a MR that I want to do that ends up in MEX?

More seriously, how long is this likely to be an issue? I'm sure there are a few people with medical knowledge on here ... I don't especially want to go somewhere that puts me at fairly serious risk of getting ill, but at the same time I don't want to rule something out altogether if it's likely to be fine in a few months.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

notzac

i think we'll know by the weekend if this outbreak turns bad or starts to die down.

reports from mexico show the daily death toll has been decreasing, so hopefully that's a good sign.

i've got 3 weeks for things to settle down :shock:

 

[lovestotravel]

So, is now a bad time to have found a MR that I want to do that ends up in MEX?

More seriously, how long is this likely to be an issue? I'm sure there are a few people with medical knowledge on here ... I don't especially want to go somewhere that puts me at fairly serious risk of getting ill, but at the same time I don't want to rule something out altogether if it's likely to be fine in a few months.

This is of course pretty much worst case. So basically it will go away much like bird flu did or it will end up like below

Pandemic: What would happen next? - CNN.com

But the WHO cautions, it cannot say whether or not it will indeed cause a pandemic. According to epidemiologists and health experts, here's what the world might see if there is another pandemic, based on past experience:
The disease would skip from city to city over an 18-to-24 month period, infecting more than a third of the population. World health Organization officials believe as many as 1.5 billion people around the globe would seek medical care and nearly 30 million would seek hospitalization. Based on the last pandemic and current world population, as many as 7 million people could die, epidemiologists said.

 

[aspro2]

Well I'm off to Europe on Monday and keeping an eye on the situation. I have no intention of cancelling. It'll be interesting to see if my full C cabin flight has emptied out at all (due to nervousness, not in infection!).

I believe the WHO is scheduled to make an announcement today European time. Seems unlikely they would declare a pandemic yet, but if more confirmed cases crop up then the weekend could see more announcements.

Nice to see a faster general reaction than during the SARS crisis with more screening in airports already.

Travel insurance is likely to be useless for medical treatment if a pandemic is declared, but may cover cancellation or early return once official announcements have declared general travel inadvisable or indeed a pandemic status is declared.

At present the media is doing a lot of froth (numerous Australians "suspected" to have it, yet most aren't quarantined) which will blur the situation.

 

[futaris]

Travel insurance is likely to be useless for medical treatment if a pandemic is declared, but may cover cancellation or early return once official announcements have declared general travel inadvisable or indeed a pandemic status is declared.

"May" being the operative word.

Most annual travel insurance policies have a clause similar to this Webjet Mondial Annual Policy:

We will not pay if:
a] You were aware of any reason, before your period of cover commenced, that may cause your journey to be cancelled, abandoned or shortened.

Nor will we pay if your cancellation fees or lost deposits arise because of:
m] Your claim arises directly or indirectly from an Epidemic or Pandemic

"Epidemic" means a sudden development and rapid spreading of a contagious disease in a region where it developed in a simply endemic state or within a previously unscathed community.

“Pandemic” means a form of an Epidemic that extends throughout an entire continent, even the entire human race.

 

[lovestotravel]

Getting a bit off-topic but this frustrates me

On Saturday a group of students got off a plane in NZ with flu like symptoms, and now 11 cases confirmed.

Now it's Wednesday and the moronic departments involved now realise they need to find the Australians that were on the plane from the USA via NZ and then flew onto MEL/SYD (Dunno which one)

Search on for Australians who were on New Zealand swine flu flight | Swine flu | News.com.au - This has a map which shows where cases are emerging, none in Asia, yet.

It is pretty much a certainty that in a matter of days Australia will have the first case of swine flu.

Heck that whole plane load of people should have been quarantined in NZ when flu like symptoms were discovered.

:evil:



Back to the topic, another few weeks will determine the outcome of this

 

[lovestotravel]

"May" bein the operative word.

Most annual travel insurance policies have a clause similar to this Webjet Mondial Annual Policy:

I would HIGHLY advise people to read the PDS with their insurance policies back to front for any T&C that may stop them being covered.

You don't want to be in an overseas country without insurance!

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

i am starting to get a bit annoyed with the TID policy wording :evil:.

Your claim arises because you did not follow advice in the mass media of a government or other official body’s warning:

• against travel to a particular country or parts of a country;
• of a strike, riot, bad weather, civil commotion or contagious disease;
• of a likely or actual Epidemic or Pandemic (such as H5N1 Avian influenza);
• of a threat of an Epidemic or Pandemic (such as H5N1 Avian influenza) that requires the closure of a country’s borders; or
• of an Epidemic or Pandemic that results in you being quarantined and you did not take the appropriate action to avoid or minimise any potential claim under your policy (including delay of travel referred to in the warning). Please refer to www.who.int for further information.

it seems they are doing their best to not cover you by pushing you to go because they wont cover the cancellation costs (as with the current government and who warning levels), but on the other hand saying you wont be covered if you do go and it reaches a pandemic level while you are there.

i did read their policy quite thoroughly before buying the cover after my experience with the Citibank policy wording changes.

the pandemic section really didn't concern me at the time - one of those things you just sorta dun see happening.

 

[SnowYeti]

I would HIGHLY advise people to read the PDS with their insurance policies back to front for any T&C that may stop them being covered.

You don't want to be in an overseas country without insurance!

I agree. My travel partner told me to just go and "wear a mask" and I will be fine. I can't believe he suggested that, why would I risk being in a foreign company without insurance?

Good advice lovestotravel!

 

[simongr]

Putting things into perspective I suppose, 85dead only? C'mon, that's it? I bet more people died on the roads in China in the past 24hours (or even their mines) :shock:

Last I heard was that the daily death toll on the roads in china was 300/day.

I am due for a follow up second round of vaccinations for yellow fever or Hep B or something from The Travel Doctor and I wasn't going to worry about it, however I made the appointment today and I'm buying a packet of Tamiflu to take with me. Not cheap, like $60 or something the receptionist said.

Are you sure that Tamiflu is effective? My company is making available tamiflu to any member of staff travelling to Asia.

 

[NYCguy]

Are you sure that Tamiflu is effective? My company is making available tamiflu to any member of staff travelling to Asia.

Advice from a friend who is a senior epidemiologist at the CDC:

Tamiflu and Relenza are both effective, but treatment needs to start as soon as possible after exposure/infection, and no later than 48 hours thereafter.

The current influenza vaccine that's available in the southern hemisphere has a component that may be partially effective against the swine-flu strain that's running amok, so immunisation may afford some protection. In very susceptible individuals (elderly, kids, respiratory diseases) it might possibly be what stops a severe infection becoming a fatal infection, so it's worth considering.

She also hastened to remind me that this isn't Ebola we're talking about here, and that panic can more dangerous than the virus, because it makes people irrational.