(WAND) — With cold and flu season knocking on the front door, it's important to keep bad health habits at the doorstep. Dr. Anna Richie, a Family Physician with Memorial Health, says cold and flu cases will rise in the following months.
Dr. Richie said once you feel yourself starting to get stick, stay home. "If you find yourself waking up with that cough congestion like, 'Oh no, I'm getting sick.' So, we would like for you to stay home. Stay home until you're 24 hours symptom-improving." She said staying home to stop the spread of germs the first few days of illness is vital. "Those first three days are really the days you are most contagious. So, you don't really want to go to work or school and spreading those germs and stay home until you're 24 hours symptom-improving and 24 hours fever-free."
However, prevention is an effective method. Dr. Richie suggests following the Five C's:
- COVER your mouth.
- CLEAN and wash your hands.
- Avoid CLOSE contact.
- Keep COUNTERTOPS clean.
- CONSUME good, healthy food.
Dr. Richie specifically making sure to keep your hands away from your face when sick. "Your hands have a lot of germs on them. We like touching and talking with our hands, or putting our hands on our face, or touching a pen and chewing on our pen. So really, just keeping those hands down and avoiding any contact to your face or mouth or your nose can also prevent some illness." said Dr. Richie.
Looking forward towards the holidays, Dr. Richie also suggests wearing a mask when travelling to visit loved ones this holiday season. "Keep the mask in mind, especially if you are immunocompromised or you're prone to get any infections...You would like to wear a mask on that airplane or some crowded environment to avoid getting sick. I also would recommend those that are sick to wear a mask just for protection of others, so you're not sneezing and coughing or others."
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