Looking good this winter means preventing cold and flu

While colds and flus are often accompanied by fevers which literally make you hot, we all know that there’s nothing hot about the way you look when you’ve got the ‘flu! A snotty nose, red watery eyes and a hacking cough make you look and feel pretty deflated. These illnesses also have a negative impact on your hip pocket when you add up the expense of days off work and treatments.

Prevention certainly is better than the cure and despite being common, colds and flus can be prevented. These tips will help you look rather than feel hot this winter!

Get a flu shot

A flu shot, also known as an influenza immunisation or vaccination, is the best way to avoid the flu. It also reduces the likelihood of severe flu complications, like pneumonia. Unfortunately there is no cure for the common cold because of the large number of different cold viruses that exist (over 200!).

If you get a flu shot you’re less likely to get the flu than someone who didn’t. But act now! A flu shot takes a couple of weeks to stimulate your immune system and protect your body, so getting your flu shot in Autumn, before the flu season starts, will give you the best protection. Anyone can get a flu shot but it is especially important for:

Young children;
Elderly people (65 years or older);
People with medical problems;
Pregnant women;
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders; and
Child care or health workers.

Check if your employer can pay for your flu shot. It’s in their interest when you consider that a bout of the flu can have you contagious and off work for potentially two weeks!

It’s called washing not wetting your hands!

Washing your hands and doing it regularly helps reduce the spread of cold and flu germs. But splashing them with water won’t quite cut it. You’ll need to lather your hands with soap or use an alcohol-based hand disinfectant.

Unless washed off with soap and water, cold and flu viruses can survive on hands for about five minutes. In that time you can catch a cold or flu by simply touching your mouth, nose or eyes! Hand washing can help get colds and flu germs off hands and is especially important:

Before eating and touching your face; and
After coughing or sneezing.

Cold and flu germs also survive on surfaces you touch like door knobs, keyboards and benches for over 8 hours. You’ve probably already guessed that cleaning surfaces (properly, with disinfectant!) helps clean away the germs and reduces the spread of cold and flu.

Avoid people with the cold and flu

Cold and flu also lurk in the air you breathe. Remember that guy coughing and sneezing on the bus behind you this morning? Every time he coughed his germs into the air, you were breathing them in. Flu viruses can survive in teh air for up to an hour!

Because cold and flu germs spread through the air, it’s important to stay away from people who are sick. But it’s obviously impossible to avoid contact with all fluey people (especially if you live in the same house with them!). That’s why good hygiene is so important in cold and flu season. If you have the flu you can reduce the chances of passing it on by:

Avoiding people as much as possible- your workplace will survive without you and your child can have time off school without falling behind.
Covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing and sneezing.
Washing hands and disposing of tissues immediately after coughing or sneezing – no storing and re-using!
Keep surfaces clean.

Stay healthy- your immune system will be stronger

Finally, general health will help ward off colds and flus. When you eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, don’t smoke and get plenty of sleep, your immune system will thank you by working extra hard to fight off bugs like the common cold.

Don’t become a cold and flu statistic

As the name suggests the common cold is very common! The average adult catches two to four colds, and the average child six to eight, colds each winter. The flu is more serious and thankfully less common. Up to one in five Australians will get the flu each winter. Kids under 5 years and elderly people are more likely to get influenza. An estimated 2,800 Australians die of ‘flu-related illnesses every year!

Follow our prevention tips to avoid becoming a cold and flu statistic this winter.

For more information on the common cold and influenza, types of influenza and treatments and tips for preventing influenza, see Cold and Flu.

References

Therapeutic Goods Administration. Overview of vaccine regulation and safety monitoring and investigation into adverse events following 2010 seasonal influenza vaccination in young children. 2010. [cited June 6, 2011] [URL Link]
Heikkinen T, Järvinen A. The common cold. Lancet. 2003; 361(9351): 51-9. [Abstract]
Olszewska W, Zambon M, Openshaw PJ. Development of vaccines against common colds. Br Med Bul. 2002; 62(1): 99111. [Full Text]
Centers for Disease Control. Seasonal flu: Good health habits for prevention [online]. 6 October 2006 [cited 6 June 2011]. Available from: [URL Link]
South Australian Health Infection Prevention and Control. Hand Hygiene Guideline. 2010. [cited 2011, Feb 22] [URL Link]
Influenza Specialist Group. How Influenza is spread. 2013. [cited 23 May 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
South Australian Government. Colds and Flus- wash, wipe, cover- don’t infect another. 2008. [cited 13 April 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
Victoria Health. Workplace immunisation. Updated 2103. [cited 18 April 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
Covington TR, Henkin R, Miller S, Sassetti M, Wright W. Treating the common cold: An expert panel consensus recommendation for primary care clinicians. Guidelines. 2004; 5(4): 1-16 [online]. Illinois Academy of Family Physicians. October 2004 [cited 14 April 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing the flu- good health habits can help stop germs. 2013. [cited 14 April 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
University of Melbourne. Protect yourself and your family- cover your cough or sneeze. 2007. [cited 23 May 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
Influenza Specialist Group. Vaccination. 2013. ([cited 23 May 2013] Available from: [URL Link]
Influenza Specialist Group. Vaccination of children. 2013. ([cited 23 May 2013] Available from: [URL Link]
Department of Health and Ageing. Get the flu shot before the flu gets you. 2013. [cited 23 may 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
Department of Health and Human Services Tasmania. Influenza. 2013. [cited 23 May 2013] Available from: [URL Link]
Department of Health and Ageing. Influenza. Australian Immunisation Handbook. 10^th Ed. 2013. [cited 23 May 2013]. Available from: [URL Link]
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Common cold. 2011. [cited 23 May 2013] Available from: [URL Link]