Travelling to Countries with Swine Flu Cases

With exams all over, I believe all of us have got plans to do some travelling in Europe soon…But many are worried about getting quarantined and not being able to meet several important dates…

I called NHS Direct @ 08454647 yesterday noon to enquire about travelling risk and below are what I was told:

1. There is currently no restriction from UK Government against travelling to any country. One of the reasons being swine flu is already a world-wide pandemic and there is no point imposing such restriction.

2. You are at risk of contracting swine flu from another person if you are at close contact with someone else with the virus. Close contact means you are either being exposed to a suspected / confirmed case for longer than 1 hour in the past 7 days within a distance of 1m or less. This puts travelling  in the same flight a risk.

3. UK NHS currently has enough anti-viral stockpile to treat half the country’s population should the need arise.

4. If SO HAPPEN someone in the same flight as you has confirmed swine flu, UK Heatlh Protection Agency (HPA) will contact everyone in the same flight (with details provided by air company i assume) and assess everybody’s condition. So far they are only quarantining people who show symptoms. If from over the phone, you appear symptomless, there wont be any quarantine. By quarantine means quarantine as required by law, i.e. it would be a criminal offence to disobey. There is no point of lying as you are putting own life and all lives around you at risk.

5. If there is a need, everyone in the same flight, regardless of symptoms will be asked to attend hospital / clinics for checks and offered anti-viral prophylaxis. Swine flu is best treated at early stage.

In conclusion, it is a matter of making INFORMED CHOICE and taking necessary precautions wherever you go, i.e. stay far from people who sneeze, sneeze into tissue and throw it away yourself, wash your hands frequently.

Disclaimer: This is just a piece of information from my conversation with the NHS Direct staff + my own rephrasing that I would like to share with everyone. It is NOT intended to replace any official health advice. It would be best if you could verify what I have written here by doing more research yourself.

For more details, visit these few websites:
1. Health Protection Agency
2. National Health Service Swine Flu Page
3. UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (can browse for travel advice for specific countries)

Impressed

Well, am really impressed with students here…UK students are really different from that in Malaysia…more proactive and outspoken…and of course, the university needs to be open-minded enough to allow this…

For your information,
there is an anti-war group in Strathclyde lobbying for the university to give up its tie with BAE system, an arms manufacturer that was alleged to supply weapons to various governments violating human rights, including the war in Palestin…

In the last Strathclyde Union AGM, they brought this up, and brought a large group of their members to form the majority of votes to pass the anti-war motion…e.g. for Strathclyde to end its contract with Eden Spring…an Israeli mineral water company allegedly obtained their water supply from Palestin…They won the motion…although some people said they did it through an un-democractic way…Previously similar motion were rejected by the SRC because it would place the university in a difficult position with its corporate funder…

Back to the point, it seems that BAE system invested alot in Strathclyde engineering research and development and employ most strathclyde engineering students…But with its alleged involvement in military activities and arms supply, some students think it is unethical for the university to continue its tie with this company…

As a follow-up from the AGM motion, a referendum will be held on Pegasus this coming Thursday on whether Strathclyde should end its relationship with BAE System. As a Strathclyde student, you have a say in this…log on PEGASUS next Thursday 30th April 9am until Friday 1st May 3pm…the party that will be affected the most is the engineering students of course….

On a side note, if this was a Malaysian university, I think all these students might have been reprimanded or expelled for challenging the university…LOL…or probably Malaysian students just dont care…

Studying here in this environment can really open up ur minds and ur eyes

It’s been long…

……since I last update my blog.

Was previously swamped with work…

Then took a break in England…

Now preparing for the final exam…

Times flies…

Looking forward working life, but dont want student life to end so soon…hmm…

Two songs for all my friends,

Step by Step by Whitney Houston

When You Believe by Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey

P106 is going to rock this coming exam!!! 

Glasgow Central Station Silent Rave

Stumbled upon it on Facebook and found it interesting…
Think some of you might want to go…nope nope…i cant dance…hee

Glasgow Central Station Silent Rave…
This is where everyone gathers in Central Station…play songs with Ipod or MP3 players in own ears…and dance to own music!!!!!

7th March 2008 (next Saturday) 2.00pm
The whole event will last about 15 minutes…

Apparently it has been organised before in London…read HERE.

Visit the facebook group HERE.

Avoid Irish Pork

This is for friends who take pork products from Ireland.

UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has urged UK citizens to avoid all pork products from Irish Republic and Northern Ireland…These porks were found to contain as high as 200 times the safety limit of dioxins in a recent test. However, FSA says any risk on human is low. LIDL and Tesco are among the supermarkets that have removed the products from shelves and are offering customers refunds.

For full news, click here, here and here.

Winter means……

Early sunset..

Glasgow @ 4pm

Icy everywhere…

SNOW!

Christmas trees & reindeer…

Winter Market…

Winter Fun Fair…

George Square

Christmas greetings to friends & family…

For YOU, him, her and them. Merry Christmas!

Missing some people

Strathclyde Debate Club is hosting its Strathclyde Cup Debate Competition coming Feb…
wheeeee~~

MPS-UK Student Chapter…do support

Thanks to Prof Yeoh…i got involved in this…arghhhhhh… :S

Haha..it’s actually not that bad…just that I never expected she would still ‘play a part’ in my life after i left IMU. Was introduced to this pharmacy student from Manchester University, who recently proposed to MPS to set up this a student chapter in UK in order to unite all Malaysian pharmacy students in UK, get them updated about the development of pharmacy profession back home in Malaysia, serve as a platform of network & communication and also a bridge between Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) and students who are studying here.

Had a 3-hour virtual meeting through skype with people from other universities just now. There were people from Cardiff, Manchester uni & Nottingham. I am really impressed with the technology that i was able to chat & ‘have meeting’ with people that I’ve never even met before…haha…anyway, we decided to set up a blog to achieve some of our objectives while working on getting approval from Malaysian Student Department in Malaysian Embassy to be a registered society in UK.

The blog is still new. We’ve only updated the “About” page…hopefully more posts will be in once everything goes on track.

Do support us by reading the blog…Ideas / replies / comments/ messages are GREATLY welcomed! If you are free, you can even contribute articles!! regardless of whether you are still a current Pharmacy student in UK or ex-UK pharmacy students, as long as the content of your article is relevant to pharmacy, studying in UK or about practising…

Thank you! cheers~

Halloween, anyone??

Yes…we are very likely to have a Halloween party for our batch on 31st October this year…(unless many of us do not agree to have one??)

What for? to allow you to mingle with our batchmates…especially your buddy…& to allow you to have a taste of Halloween…

Dressing up is voluntary and not necessary…there is no need to if you dont want to…& cost will be kept minimum…

Details will be announced in lectures…by one of us…if everything goes smoothly…*fingers crossed* stay tuned!! & DO do voice out if you have any suggestion…

More events coming up for our buddy system…cheers~