Don't Panic, but Stay Healthy: How to avoid swine flu and other ailments in college-town crowds

So you find yourself in a college town, with multiple large educational institutions and lots of businesses, making for an extremely mobile population. There's nothing to suggest that swine flu has reached Ithaca (no reported cases here, though one's been confirmed in nearby Cortland), or whether it's likely to, but we can take some smart precautions to help prevent the spread of this or other virulent diseases.

Crowds gather for Cornell's annual Slope Day. 14850 Photo.

Wash your hands

No, really. Health experts are repeating over and over this week that washing your hands is one of the best ways of preventing the spread of disease. Antibacterial soap isn't necessary; washing with soap and warm or hot water, for at least 20-30 seconds, is. If you wash your hands frequently, especially after using the restroom or touching communal objects like telephones or light switches, you're much less likely to pass along anything you might be carrying, and you're much less likely to infect yourself with germs picked up elsewhere.

Alcohol gel-based hand sanitizer dispensers are popping up everywhere, in stores and in offices and beyond, and they're a great way of killing germs on your hands without worrying about creating resistant superbugs, as excessive use of antibiotics or even antibacterial soap could. Keep a small container with you when you're out and about. This is an especially good idea if you'll be attending any of Ithaca's upcoming end-of-semester festivities, from Cornell's Slope Day to Ithaca College's Fountain Day to the community's Ithaca Festival.

"This is a cause for deep concern, but not panic." -- Pres. Barack Obama

Douglas Adams joked in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" about the potential for the collapse of civilization when all the telephone sanitation engineers are gone, but viruses really can and do stay alive and transmittable on hard surfaces. In addition to phones and light switches, consider cleaning the microwave oven door handle and control pad, the office coffee pot, the copier, and anything else multiple people use.

While you're at it, wash that coffee mug you mostly just rinse before each refill. And, has green-mindedness sparked a switch to shared plates, mugs, or silverware at work? Take the time to wash those a little more thoroughly between uses.

Cover your mouth when you sneeze

Are you starting to get the feeling that many of the things your mother wanted you doing to be polite actually have a sound health basis? If sneezes and coughs can release tens of thousands of droplets into the surrounding room in an aerosol effect, destined to land on nearby people, cooking implements, or other surfaces, covering your mouth starts to sound like a quick and easy way of keeping your germs to yourself.

For starters, cough or sneeze into a tissue if you have one handy, and then dispose of the tissue. (Piles of used tissues sitting around are not only yucky-looking, but a good way for disease to spread.) If you don't have a tissue handy, cough or sneeze into your sleeve or your hand. Whatever you cough or sneeze into, washing your hands next is a good idea.

Use your own glass.

It always gets a chuckle to say "The alcohol will kill the germs," when you had someone your cocktail or beer to try at the bar, but is it true? Sure, if you're drinking straight vodka or whisky, but probably not if you're having a beer or mixed drink. Leaving aside entirely the possibility someone could slip something unpleasant into your drink, you'll be healthiest if you stick to your own glass and let others get their own.

Practice the same selfishness when it comes to sharing food. Passing around tastes of everyone's dish is a great way to sample a variety of items at that new restaurant, and of course one piece of cake with eight forks has become the new weight-loss strategy, but consider divvying things up with clean cutlery before everyone starts tasting.

How about common household items? Southwest Airlines has stopped offering blankets to air travelers for fear of spreading disease. At home, we certainly suggest fresh linens for each houseguest, but that's nothing new. Washing blankets and pillows more often isn't a bad idea, though these aren't hospitable environments for viruses.

Sick? Stay home.

This is always the considerate thing to do, though many folks avoid staying home when they should for fear of using up limited sick days, or running afoul of unsympathetic managers who want them at the office. It's especially important in the case of virulent diseases, though, and given the mounting concern about swine flu, we suspect management will be a little more forgiving this spring.

Simply put, if you're experiencing flu-like symptoms, which the CDC says can include a cough, fever, muscle aches, and nausea, you should stay home from work or school. If your kids are experiencing such symptoms, you should keep them at home, too.

Again, don't panic. These symptoms don't even necessarily mean you have influenza, much less the current strain of swine flu that's got everyone in a tizzy. You could just have a bad cold, but even that is worth staying home and not sharing with your friends, fellow students, or coworkers.

If you do go to work, even if you're perfectly healthy, don't be offended if people are less inclined to shake hands. Who knows when the last time is that other person washed up. While you're at it, get out of the habit of touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

Need more info?

Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College have all assembled web pages with information for their communities, and there's lots of good info on the web (along with lots of hysteria that can be safely ignored). Look it over, take care of your health, and stay calm.

• TC3 Health Center info
• Ithaca College Health center info
• Cornell's Gannett Health Center info
• Swine Flu & You - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention