Travel insurance cover for viral outbreak?

NoodleDoodleMan

hantavirus is closely related to be differrent from influenza.

I had to look up hantavirus (I suspect others will too) - a disease spread by rodents.

The FO doesn't appear to advise against travel though.

sherpa_2

Thanks all. There was an FO alert about the last outbreak (not that it advised against any but essential travel). The problem is that the area affected is pretty small, so it it's not going to be a priority.

It appears now that the authorities are closing main routes through the area, and access to the lakes, which are full of floating corpses of dead rats of the kind which carry the virus (and we're staying 50m from the lake). I've emailed the insurance company, let's see what they say (and if, in the circumstances, we would be covered if we DID go). If they still say no, i'll try some public shaming.

bradders1983

Wouldnt they just argue the rest of Argentina is safe, so they wont pay out?

Sea_Shell

I'd be asking myself whether I'd now feel safe going there, full stop. Insurance or no insurance??

If you're really worried, don't go. If your insurers cover you it's a bonus.

Only you can weigh up cost of holiday vs. your health.

Will you even enjoy it, even if you are covered if you're taken ill whilst there.

sherpa_2

bradders1983 wrote: »

Wouldnt they just argue the rest of Argentina is safe, so they wont pay out?

We're not asking them to pay out for the rest of the trip to Argentina, just the cost of that hotel in the area with the hantavirus

sherpa_2

Sea_Shell wrote: »

I'd be asking myself whether I'd now feel safe going there, full stop. Insurance or no insurance??

If you're really worried, don't go. If your insurers cover you it's a bonus.

Only you can weigh up cost of holiday vs. your health.

Will you even enjoy it, even if you are covered if you're taken ill whilst there.

Yes, we definitely won't go, either way. We're just hoping that they will cover the cost of cancelling the hotel, to cover the cost of staying elsewhere.

I only asked if they would cover us if we did go, in part to be provocative/make them think - given the situation, the warnings and the measures that the authorities have taken, would they say that we should have known it wasn't safe? I know that when we have had to claim before for a cancelled booking due to our illness, we had to get a letter from the doctor to show that we had good reason not to expect that we would need to claim. In this case, it seems that we have quite good reason to think that we would need to claim.

But, as you say, we won't be taking that risk. We just want to be able to afford to stay somewhere else.

iwb100

NathNAC report from earlier in the year is a total of 34 cases. This seems to me to be someone worrying about very low risk and expecting their insurance to cover them. Googling doesn't seem to provide any new information past March.

This isn't a pandemic where hundreds of thousands of people are getting ill. This is a small outbreak where the risk can be managed.

Every year millions of people travel to tropical countries that carry malaria risk - a disease that can be fatal or life changing - yet don't bother with anti-malarials. There are outbreaks all the time.

When was the trip booked? The outbreak appears to have happened in January this year. If you booked it before then I guess you may have an insurance case - if after - then forget about it.