health check

due to the outbreak of swine flu, airports have added a control point when arriving in a country. the traveler should sign a health declaration form and disclose any symptoms she/he may have. normally, i always answer "no" so that there won't be any further questions/hassles upon arriving in another country. however, i have always wondered what would happen if i did check "yes" to one of the symptoms.

i had the chance to find out when i went to HK last week for training. I had been coughing like crazy for the past week (coz i didn't take medicine at all) and I thought there was no way I can get past the health officials with signing a clean health declaration form so I did the right thing and checked "cough". When it was my turn to had over the form, the officer saw that I wrote down I had a cough so he asked me to go with him to do some temperature test. He gave me a face mask and escorted me to the makeshift area downstairs. Even though I know that i'm not sick and i definitely do not have swine flu, I am still feeling a bit nervous because I have a terrible cough and is feeling cold from the plane and airport. The lady in the area took my temperature (through my ears) and to my relief, said, "Okay. No fever." She wrote my temperature (37.2 degrees Celsius) on the form, signed off and gave it to me. I walked back to the health officer, submitted the form and proceeded to the immigration area.