Influenza...

As a healthcare worker, I myself am a bit concerned over the recent "concern" regarding the "Swine Flu."

People don't understand the difference between H2N2 and H3N2; the Hong-Kong Flu, the Asian Flu, the Spanish Flu, or the Asiatic Flu.

Influenza is a common viral infection! In fact, the flu is not truly seasonal... it can be seen, caught, suffered from, and detected year round. We have a "flu season" were there is a sharp rise in the reported number of cases, where we (as healthcare workers) see the "wave" of cases... but the flu is still the flu!

In the past decades, the flu has been demystified! It is a viral infection, spread through airborne droplets from the respiratory tract.

Want to guard yourself from the flu?

1) Wash your hands... frequently!
2) Use instant hand sanitizers when you can't actually wash your hands.
3) Cover your mouth/nose when you cough and/or sneeze. Best is to cough/sneeze into the crook of your elbow, not your hands. But your hands are better than open air! Afterwards, see #1 & 2 above!

Wearing a mask really doesn't help! You can wear a mask all you want, bottom line is you are touching things all the time with your hands. These things potentially have influenza virus all over them! If you don't wash your hands... well...

Think about rubbing your eyes, eating, picking your nose, etc! Unwashed hands may contain the influenza virus! And you just introduced it into your body!

I have not had a flu-shot in over 10 years! Nor have I had the flu in those years either... 3 to 7 days of wondering, but not really the flu... why? Because in my line of work I probably wash my hands 15 times or more a day and when I'm not washing my hands outright at the sink with soap and water, I'm using an instant hand sanitizer!

BTW...

Growing up, we coined a phrase, "Ping-Pong Flu." One person would get sick, then someone else in the family would. By the time the first person felt better, someone else was sick. Eventually, it went back around again! Passed back and forth, like a ping-pong ball across the net!

Hmmm... maybe I should try to get the next strain of influenza named "Ping-Pong!"


WASH YOUR HANDS!