Message #60783

[dettu]

My husband is a flu researcher (animals, not humans) and I always defer to him in such matters. His specific recommendations for avoiding flu, whether pandemic or just the kind that makes you so darned sick every winter and knocks you for a loop, are these:
1. Wash your hands FREQUENTLY with warm water and soap. I wash every time I go into the kitchen at work, including whenever I get coffee or tea. Fill my cup, then go to the sink and wash my hands. Same deal if I use the refrigerator, the microwave, any place my fellow employees touch a lot. With the recent uptick in norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships, I've become more conscious of germs in restaurants, so now I excuse myself to wash my hands after I've returned my menu to the waitress.
2. Do not eat out of communal dishes. This includes buffet dishes. During flu season I simply will not eat from a buffet. I bring my own lunch to work meetings. I just told everyone I'm on a special diet. Also: do NOT eat out of a candy dish, even if the candies are wrapped. Because everyone has had his/her hands in that dish! Ew! Same with people kindly bringing in homemade cookies, cake, etc. I just say no. Since he gave me this tip, I have had about 70% fewer colds and stomach viruses.
3. Get a flu shot. So if you were to contract bird flu, the doctors would know you didn't have human flu.