From the literature published to date on the general public's risk perceptions and behaviour changes during the 2009 influenza A/H1N1 pandemic [1, 6, 7] , higher risk perception scores were reported from Asian countries than from Western countries. For example, participants from studies conducted in India [8] , Saudi Arabia [6] and Hong Kong [9] expressed higher concern and perceived susceptibility levels than the respondents from studies conducted in the UK [1] and Australia [3] . While these variations may be correlated with methodological issues or the time period during the 2009 pandemic in which the study was conducted (i.e. May 2009 versus November/December 2009), if the trends are accurate it has the potential to affect the speed and extent to which infection control measures are accepted.