Stay Home When Sneezing Starts
Newcastle Herald
Friday June 1, 2007
THE best way of preventing the winter scourge of coughs, colds and flu is to stay at home when you get sick and clean up your unsafe sneezing habits.
That's the advice of specialist Peter White, who admits productivity is affected when people take a couple of days off work when the runny nose and sneezing starts in the first, infectious few days of a cold. But he believes staying at home is a better strategy than spreading colds in the workplace, sending more people home sick or reducing their ability to concentrate. "It's a hard one, but overall, it will probably have less impact," Dr White said. In a survey of 547 Australian adults, Dr White found 94 per cent of Australian workers admitted they still turned up for work with cold and flu symptoms, although 85 per cent admitted thinking about the risk of passing on their illness. The two most common reasons people went to work sick was because they believe people were relying on them, or they had too much to do. Dr White said people should stay home when the sneezing started, propelling thousands of virus-containing droplets into the air at speeds of more than 300 kmh. However, he also warned people were at the greatest risk of catching a cold at home because of poor hygiene practices such not disposing of used tissues properly and not washing hands after sneezing. "The most common places used tissues are left to fester is bedrooms, followed by the lounge or on the sofa, and then the bathroom," Dr White said. "If you do get sick, cough, sneeze or blow your nose into a tissue and throw the tissue in the bin after using it only once. If there isn't a box of tissues handy, cough or sneeze into cupped hands or the crook of your arm."
© 2007 Newcastle Herald