Everyday Preventive Actions to Prevent Catching (and Spreading) Colds and the Flu

Is your office a fairly quiet environment? You may have some soft pop/rock hits from the 90s and today playing over the radio as some background noise. But what cuts through the noise better than a knife is the sound of a coworker coughing or sneezing.

You suddenly complete a self-assessment. Sniff your nose three times to check for stuffiness, clear your throat to check for soreness, and finally try to feel your lymph nodes to check for swelling (possibly completing a Google search to locate your lymph nodes). Once your self-assessment is completed you may ruffle through your drawer of snacks and backup sticky notes to search for some Vitamin C.

So we already know from some of our past posts that the germs from a cough can travel up to 50MPH jetting out several feet; and a sneeze can travel even further flying out of a person at 200MPH or more from our post on How Far Can Germs Spread From A Sneeze or Cough? What can you do each and every day to help yourself from catching a cold…or worse – the dreaded flu.

Stay Away

Do you best to stay away from sick people. We get it, you may work in close quarters with your colleagues and there may feel like there is no escape from the direct path of multiple sneezes. This is where you try to remember not to touch your eyes, nose and mouth. These are the easiest points of entry for germs to get into your system and cause an infection.

Clean/Disinfect

When you walk into your office on Monday morning, spend a just a few minutes wiping down areas that could be infested with germs. Grab a canister of our SaniZide Plus® Germicidal Wipes and go to town on your keyboard, phone, mouse and desk. This product will clean, deodorize and disinfect your area.

Wash

If there is one thing that you take away from this post, or many of our other posts, is the importance of washing your hands. It is incredibly important to wash your hands effectively. If you are not washing your hands correctly, you are probably leaving harmful germs behind on your hands. Those germs can then very easily cause you to get the flu or a cold. If you did not know alread; the flu virus can live on human tissue for 15 minutes. Just think about how many times that you touch your eyes, nose or mouth in 15 minutes.

Sanitize

If for some reason soap and water are not available; you should utilize our hand sanitizer that contains 66.5% ethyl alcohol that kills 99.9% of widespread germs (and it smells pretty great as well). Want to give our hand sanitizer a try? Take the challenge and compare us to the brand that you are currently using.

Stay Home

If you are the person that we referenced in the first few paragraphs that is coughing and sneezing, maybe think about taking off a day to recover yourself. There is nothing better than letting your body rest to recover from the flu or a nasty cold. If you are sick with flu-like symptoms the CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without the use of medicine.

Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/consumer/prevention.htm