It’s cold and flu season and staying healthy can be hard when you are living in the same household with sick individuals. Sharing close living space creates a home for germs, especially when people are coughing and sneezing, with fevers and runny noses. These tips can help to limit the spread of cold and flu germs and other types of infections.
Staying healthy made simple
- Boost your immune system by getting proper rest and eating healthy.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water using the CDC’s five steps:
- Wet
- Lather
- Scrub at least 20 seconds
- Rinse
- Dry
- Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth with unclean hands.
- Avoid or limit contact with sick individuals as much as possible.
- Create a cleaning schedule for high traffic areas in your house, such as the kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms.
- Use a bleach solution to clean surfaces such as countertops, sinks, toilets, bathroom floors, and other surfaces. Chlorine bleach is effective in killing stomach viruses such as norovirus. Do not mix bleach with ammonia products!
- Don’t forget to clean high-touch surfaces such as television remotes, light switches, smartphones, computers & keyboards, door handles, and faucets. Germs can live on surfaces, carrying them to the next user.
- Discard all tissues in the trash, then perform hand hygiene with soap and water and/or alcohol-based hand gel