Common-Sense Basics Help You Stay Cold-Free

Prevention of colds and viruses wasn’t given too much attention in your articles Dec. 7 (“Hot on the Trail” and related stories). Many of those lessons I learned in kwdergarten--like washing hands, keeping our hands to ourselves and covering our mouths when we cough and sneeze.

Hand washing has been shown to decrease the transmission of germs. When people are sick, they often have cold viruses on their hands, shake our hands or touch something we touch. Then, if we don’t wash our hands before we eat, we ingest their germs or we touch our eyes and infect ourselves.

And, of course, if we cover our mouths when we cough or sneeze, there are fewer of our germs circulating. If we stay home when we are sick or keep our kids home when they are sick, that would also help others. But that is a difficulty when both parents (if there are two parents) work.

DR. JACK YU

Via E-Mail