All Stop Health Blog

Posts Tagged ‘hand sanitizers’

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.