Now that “the most wonderful time of the year” has passed, the most sneezy/coughy/sickly time of the year is upon us. All of our coworkers have returned from their holiday travel, spending time on airplanes or trains, stuck in cars for hours passing germs back and forth, and visiting family and friends and all of their sticky, oblivious children. If your office doesn’t already have a cacophony of coughing and a pile of tissues in the trash, it probably will soon. Follow these simple tips to keep yourself and your coworkers free from colds and flu this year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that although the timing and severity of flu season is unpredictable, the peak for flu activity in the United States is generally in January or February. To prepare for flu season, the CDC recommends that most people receive the yearly flu vaccine. Following the CDC’s good health habits can also stop the spread of seasonal flu. To keep you and your family healthy: avoid close contact with others, stay home when you are sick, cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, wash your hands often and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Basic healthy living habits like getting plenty of sleep, drinking enough fluids and eating nutritious food can also keep you healthier during flu season. It may be easier said than done, but relaxing can also help to keep you healthy since stress can be a drain on your immune system.
Even if you’ve already gotten your flu shot for the year, don’t bet on making it through to spring unscathed. Colds are also a respiratory illness, but are caused by completely different viruses. Because the symptoms can be very similar between a cold and the flu, it may be hard to tell which you are suffering from. Colds are generally milder than the flu, and you are more likely to have a runny or stuffy nose. The flu is generally more intense and can cause fever, body aches, extreme tiredness and a dry cough. Because both the cold and flu are most often spread from person to person, preventing the spread of colds can be accomplished by following the same precautions recommended to prevent the flu.
This advice may sound like common sense to you, and you may think that you are doing all that you can to prevent illness from spreading in your workplace. But are you really? Next time you go to wash your hands, set a timer or count in your head the length of time you would normally wash. If it was less than 20 seconds, your hands aren’t as clean as they could be. You should be washing your hands, with soap and water, for the time it takes you to sing the Happy Birthday song twice from beginning to end. If you’re relying on an alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead, you may still have some germs remaining on your hands that sanitizers can’t eliminate.
Think washing your hands after you use the restroom is enough? Probably not. As you read this article, think of the things you have already touched today. If you opened a door when you came into the office, flipped on a light switch, sat down at someone else’s desk to ask how their weekend was, made a copy, grabbed a cup of coffee in the kitchen and snagged a cookie that someone brought in this morning, you’ve had at least 6 opportunities to come into contact with germs that can make you sick.
No one likes being sick and no one likes the person that comes to work sick and gets everyone else sick. Do your best to keep you and your coworkers as healthy as possible. Spread information instead of germs in your office today, wash your hands often and stay home when you are sick!
