All Stop Health Blog

Posts Tagged ‘H1N1 prevention’

4. Don’t Leave your home if you feel ill

image by: Stephen Chernin / AP

With the lacking of an exact vaccine, the only logical defenses we have against the spread of H1N1 are simple ones. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze; trying use your arm and not your hands while doing so.  Wash your hands frequently and be mindful of touching publicly often-used handles. You may even purchase a  pocket-sized bottle of hand sanitizer and use it, in moderation though. Over exposure to alcohol-based hand sanitizers will dry out your skin, creating cracks and fissures in your skin where open flesh will be exposed, leading to increased susceptibility to the H1N1 virus. Also, maintain consuming immune-boosting supplements, drinks and foods. These are some of the easiest, and some of the more effective ways of preventing getting sick.

“But when it comes to slowing the overall spread of a pandemic flu, the best thing we can do is keep sick people away from everyone else. It’s called “social distancing,” and studies of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu showed that cities that instituted distancing measures quickly suffered lower death tolls than cities that did nothing or reacted slowly.” -TIME

So if you’re feeling ill or under the weather, don’t return to work until your health is back up to par — even though that may not be the best advice for the nearly 50% of private-sector workers in the U.S. who don’t get paid sick days.

Joe Raedle / Getty

Since this global swine flu issue is taking off in the media and by word of mouth nearly everywhere you turn, there’s no wondering why so many people may easily panic and overact to even the smallest sign that they feel ill right now. Because of this terror instilled in people, some are going so far as to pour into emergency rooms in many states across our country; they fear they have this horrifying disease. It is strongly urged that people DO NOT rush to the emergency room if they start feeling the tiniest inkling that they have contracted swine flu. Like, “oh, my throat hurts…”, or “I feel more tired than i usually do”, or “what’s with my coughing and sniffling?, that can’t be good!”

It also burdens hospitals, the more that “just paranoid” people that start rushing to ER.  Having to examine people who aren’t really sick puts a toll on the already strained/stressed hospitals that are trying to prepare for a pandemic. Additionally, going to an emergency room without just cause may even put you further in harms way and risk your health. In past outbreaks, including SARS in 2003, hospitals were actually breeding grounds of infections — all those sick people in close proximity — and the same could be true of swine flu.

“If you actually have flu-like symptoms — a fever above 100° F, headache, sore throat, body aches, chills or fatigue — and you live in an area where there have been confirmed swine flu cases, by all means report to your doctor. Otherwise, leave the hospital to the sick people.”

ARTICLE FEATURED ON TIME.COM