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General Public Information
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To protect yourself and others from the flu:
- Stay home if you are sick, until you are fever-free for a full 24 hours without taking fever-reducing medicine.
- Cough and sneeze into your elbow, or into a tissue. Throw this tissue away.
- Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, but especially after coughing and sneezing. Alcohol-based hand gels can also be used.
- Avoid touching your nose, mouth, and eyes. Germs can be spread by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Avoid contact with sick people. If you are at very high risk for complication, you may want to avoid large crowds.
- Vaccination is the best protection against the flu.
- Consider getting a pneumococcal vaccine if you are 65 years and older, less than 5 years of
age or 5-64 years of age with underlying medical conditions, and have not have this vaccine in
the last 5 years. Studies have shown that influenza (flu) infections increase a person’s
risk for developing bacterial pneumonia. In previous flu pandemics, many flu-associated deaths
occurred in people who had bacterial pneumonia along with influenza. Contact your health care
provider for this vaccine.
- Contact your health care provider if there are flu-like symptoms in a household where anyone is younger than 2 years old, 65 years or older, pregnant, and/or has an underlying medical condition. There are prescription medicines (antivirals such as Tamiflu®) that may help.
For more information on these medications, go to: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/antivirals/quickfacts.htm
- Although most people can stay home to recover without seeing a health care provider, anyone with the flu should seek medical attention for:
- Dehydration
- Trouble breathing
- Getting better, then suddenly getting a lot worse
- Any major change in condition
Can’t find the information you need?
If you are looking for a place to get vaccinated:
For more general information:
The groups listed below are at higher risk of getting very sick from H1N1 flu
More resources:
- Managing Stress Reactions (Word* | PDF*)
US CDC Flu information:
- For Individuals and Families -
basic information for the public from the US CDC
- CDC
flu information (pdf*) - Stopping Germs at Home, Work and School. Cover your cough or sneeze
if you do not have a tissue. Then, clean your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze.
- Stopping
the Spread of Germs - Stop the Spread of Germs Healthy habits at home, work, & school;
Printable Materials, flyers & posters, Cover Your Cough, Germ Stopper Poster.
- Clean Hands Saves
Lives - keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting
sick and spreading germs to others.
- Hand
washing to reduce Disease - Recommendations to Reduce Disease Transmission from Animals in
Public Settings
Educational materials, such as videos, activities, posters, and brochures:
- General prevention
- Hand-washing
- BAM!
Body and Mind. Teacher's Corner - In this activity, students will conduct an experiment
on washing their hands. They will learn that "clean" hands may not be so clean after
all and the critical importance of washing their hands as a way to prevent the spread of disease.
- CDC
TV - Put Your Hands Together (video) - Scientists estimate that people are not washing their
hands often or well enough and may transmit up to 80% of all infections by their hands
- Covering your cough
*free viewer or to request a hard copy
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