The rise of Covid-19 pandemic is a global concern nowadays. Millions of people in this world were infected by it, and a large portion from it unfortunately passed away. But, did you know, before Covid-19 pandemic there was another pandemic called H1N1? H1N1, or known as swine flu started in 2009. This pandemic is caused by H1N1 and also H3N1 strains of the flu (influenza a) virus. In 2009, scientists found out that this virus is caused by a combination of virus strains from pigs, birds and also humans. Thus, giving the ability for this virus to infect humans.

Same as Covid-19 virus. The H1N1 virus can enter the airways through air droplets or direct contact. Because a large number of people had been infected by H1N1, the World Health Organization had declared it as a pandemic. One year later, the infection was controlled successfully and there were no more cases of H1N1 flu. So, how did the world manage to control and prevent H1N1 virus flu? We might learn something from the past experience and implement it to fight Covid-19 from this case. Keep on reading this article to find out the best steps to prevent H1N1 virus flu.

1. Keep your hand clean

The most common way for H1N1 virus to infect others is through close contact. Same as Covid-19, anyone that contacts the virus and touches their eyes, nose and mouth will likely get infected because the virus can travel into the body. Hence, keeping your hand clean by washing it thoroughly is the best thing to do. Remember to use soap or alcohol sanitizer to help kill the virus.

2. Stay at home if you are sick

The H1N1 virus is considered as pandemic because of its ability to infect others. If you are sick and have flu-like symptoms, the best thing that you can do to help stop the spread is by staying at home. With this method, you will decrease the spreading chances and help to minimize the cases.

3. Cover your cough and sneeze

If you are infected by H1N1 virus, you are likely to develop flu-like symptoms such as cough and sneeze. If you do not cover your mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing, you will accidently help spread the virus as far as 1 meter. So, please cover your cough or sneeze especially when in a crowded place. Better still, you can choose to wear a mask to make it easier to cover your nose and mouth.

4. Clean surfaces

H1N1 virus can sometimes last for a few days on any surface. To help avoid touching the virus, you can always choose to clean your surroundings thoroughly. Do this activity at least once in a week in order to keep your house or workplace safe from H1N1 virus strain. You can use soap water or alcohol-based solution to clean most of the surfaces.

5. Avoid close contact

When the World Health Organization declared that H1N1 is a pandemic, most of the government in this world will declare their own country protocol in fighting this pandemic. The number one protocol that needs to be followed is avoiding close contact. This means that we need to stay away from crowds if possible. If needed, make sure the distance between one person to another person is at least one meter. Besides, if someone is having flu-like symptoms, the best thing to do is to avoid any kind of contact with the personal. You can see that this protocol is quite the same with the one that was implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.