Nagging Cold Viruses Nothing to Sneeze at : Health: Ailments play havoc with business schedule-makers and early-year school attendance. Wash hands often, doctors advise.

Physicians call them rhinoviruses and adenoviruses, but to some Orange County employers and school officials the translation can mean vacant offices and classrooms.

The two cold viruses have swept through workplaces and schools like the recent rainstorm, playing havoc with business schedule-makers and early-year school attendance figures.

“Kids back in school are exposed to viruses they have never seen before,” said Dr. Greg Bugert, director of ambulatory care at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, where the caseload has been about 15% higher than normal since school started, including an unusual number of diarrhea cases lasting four or five days.

The nagging crud has also visited Woodbridge High School in Irvine, where a school official said absences were up this week because of “lots of colds and strep throats lasting a week, not a 24-hour flu.”

Also, directors of a local ad agency reported that more than half of its 40-member staff had fallen ill.

“I’ve had it for a couple of weeks, and it is awful,” said Gail Monaco, director of production at the deYoung Ginsberg Weisman Bailey ad agency in Irvine. “I have free-lancers cover the sick people and handle the extra work. . . . Some people are taking their (computers) home and working there. We can’t afford to have anyone out.

“I even think my dog got it, poor thing,” she said.

Physicians said children may be the primary targets because their immune systems have not been exposed to many of the cold viruses that adults have.

Yet, even as some schools and businesses were reporting more absences, the virus seems to have hopscotched over some of the county’s largest employers.

“There has not been an absentee problem here,” said John McClintock, senior publicist at Disneyland, which employs about 7,000 people in Orange County. “We haven’t heard of anything going around.”

County officials also said they have not seen a noticeable influx of flu cases, but they added that increases in the number of colds are generally not recorded.

Hildy Meyers, an epidemiologist for the county Health Care Agency, who tracks flu cases, said any outbreak of colds “may have something to do with the fall season or start of school.”

Meyers said colds commonly strike people who work closely together, making transmission easier. “They may not have already shared what may be circulating,” Meyers said. “For an individual (virus), you will develop immunity, but so many viruses cause common cold that you will never be immune to all of them.”

Doctors said prevention of the pesky illnesses can be as easy as their transmission. “It can get transmitted by someone who sneezes into their hand and opens a door handle,” Bugert said. “Then another person touches the handle and scratches their nose and infects themselves.

“Regular hand-washing is most important for prevention.”

He said the best remedies are also simple and do not usually require a doctor, just lots of liquids, some recommended non-prescription medication and rest. “Five dollars at the pharmacist can save you $50 at the doctor,” Bugert said.

The viruses generally get passed from child to child, and then from child to parent, and finally from parent to co-worker, Bugert said.

“Stay away from kids,” joked Linda Bonniksen, spokeswoman at Pacific Bell in Orange.

She said some of the regional Pacific Bell offices have been affected.

Doreen Miller, a manager in the Tustin offices of Pacific Bell, said daily operations have not been harmed by absenteeism, but “it has taken some creative scheduling.”

She said employees have been out three or four days, but during cold season people usually recover in one day or a weekend.

Most stricken workers interviewed said the virus has shown unusual staying power, but Bonniksen said she struggles into work anyway.

“I missed a day of work,” she said, “but after one day of watching Sally Jesse Raphael, Geraldo and Donahue, I would rather be sick at work.”