Dear George,
I’ve been worrying more about the flu this year.
This could be a matter of getting older, but it’s probably due to generalized
anxiety about the imminent collapse of the country (which makes one more
vulnerable to all the horrors out there). In any case, my nervousness got
worse when Katja recently had an overnight stay in the hospital. The
doctor told her not to go to the chamber music concert when she got out
(millions of flu germs), and, if she felt compelled to go to a friend’s
funeral, she should only make a brief appearance and shake nobody’s hand.
Then the nurse came in and added that the current flu is lethal, that the
vaccine this year is only 10% effective, and that it would be best to never
leave our house at all.
When I got home I went straight to Google and asked “How
do I prevent the flu?” There are a lot of good tips available. Here
are the main suggestions from webmd.com and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention*:
Get a yearly flu vaccination,
preferably by the end of October. This is especially important for
persons in high risk categories: young children, people age 65 and older,
pregnant women, and persons with chronic health conditions.
Avoid crowded public places.
Especially try to stay away from people who are coughing or sneezing.
Wash your hands frequently with
soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based
hand rub.
Every time you sneeze or cough
wash your hands for 15 seconds (the time it takes to silently sing “Happy
Birthday” twice).
Cover your nose and mouth with
a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose,
and mouth. This is how most germs are spread.
Clean and disinfect surfaces
and objects that may be contaminated with germs, e.g., doorknobs, stairway
railings, keyboards, phones.
I was dimly aware of most of these ideas, but I’ve never
done much to put them into practice. I find that frequent hand-washing
with soap is a lot like like drinking 8 glasses of water a day. It sounds
good and I have good intentions, but I rarely follow through. This time,
though, I went promptly to the bathroom sink to take action. Our soap is
a purple liquid which comes in a plastic dispenser named “Lavender”. The
label is decorated with purple flower images, and the soap not only smells good
but it’s guaranteed to provide “freshness at your fingertips”. I reviewed
the fine print carefully, but it didn’t say anything about the flu or any other
life-threatening condition. I asked Katja if we had a regular bar of
soap, and she did have a bar in the bureau dresser. It was large,
egg-shaped, purple, smelled exotic, and came in a woven silk bag with a purple
tie. Like our “Lavender” dispenser, it made me uneasy. I decided to
get my own more powerful soap at the drugstore.
I never paid much attention to the soap department at our
neighborhood pharmacy, but I have to admit it’s impressive. The soap
section is about 18 feet long, 5 foot high, and must contain three hundred or
more different soap products. The hitch for me was that they all came in
plastic dispensers with floral designs and promises of “beauty”, smooth skin,
and “freshness”. For several minutes I couldn’t find any bars of soap at
all. Finally I located three packages on the bottom shelf at the end of
the row. I settled on the antibacterial bar (even though it’s irrelevant
to the flu since the flu is a virus). The label says “‘round the clock
odor protection” and “the perfect balance of feeling clean & moisturized.”
They don’t explain just how they determined that cleanliness and moisture are
balanced.
Katja is unhappy with my choice. She says the
yellow-orange color doesn’t fit our purple bathroom motif. My opinion is
that yellow is complementary to purple so it’s a better fit than, say, pink or
chartreuse. So far I have used my new bar of soap once or twice each day.
I’ve yet to use it after sneezing or coughing although I hope to do so in the
future. I definitely worry less about the flu now. Not only
do I wash my hands with soap more often, but there’s probably protection just
from having a real bar of soap sitting in our bathroom.
Love,
Dave
*SOURCES:
www.cdc.gov,
“Prevent the Flu: Good Health Habits Can Help Stop Germ
www.webmd.com, "How to Dodge the Flu Without a Shot"
No comments:
Post a Comment