Being on a rush to catch a connecting flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the couple didn’t pay much attention to this medical news; they were scheduled to join a pre-arranged travel party to explore famous Angkor Wat Temple complex over next few days. While exploring the ancient temple site with multitude of international tourists, they noticed that the majority were now using the facemasks, while avoiding close contacts. It appeared that the news spread globally forcing the arriving international tourists to take precaution. Meanwhile no new characteristics of the infection came out from the country of origin.
After exploring the temple complex while mingling with thousands of tourists over next few days, the couple took a regional airlines flight arriving at scenic Luang Prabang, situated next to the Mekong River in Laos. Next morning, the couple rented a local pickup truck to take them to cascading Kuang Si falls, a natural wonder, thus a must-see tourist attraction. While returning from the trip, a severe chill descended on Dan while he began to shiver, alternately between falling asleep and waking up. Laura felt his high body temperature and requested the driver to stop at a roadside local market to buy a thick blanket to wrap him up. However, Dan had no sign of life-threatening coughing and breathing troubles that had been reported as the hallmarks for the infection by the new virus. Dan occasionally complained about a severe sore throat as well as loss of his sense of smell and taste, thus stopping any food consumption. Laura remembered reading the new virus only caused severe coughing and breathing trouble. So, she assured Dan that he might have caught a regional bug that affected different parts of his body.
After spending next several days for Dan to heal, the couple flew back to the US. By this time, the virus created a pandemic throughout the world. In new guidelines, medical authorities acknowledged that every symptom that Dan exhibited in Laos could be a potential symptom of the infection.
As of this writing, only 20 (with no death) Laotians have been reported to be infected by the novel virus. Dan wonders whether his “karma” had anything to do of him catching the virus not in New York that got devastated by the virus.