Tips to reduce your risk of getting the Flu 

• Get your annual flu shot
• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 15-20 seconds.  Alcohol-based hand sanitizers like Purell are also effective and can be used.
• Regularly disinfect surfaces (kitchen, bathroom, doorknobs) with a Lysol-type product or disinfectant wipes.
• Flu spreads by respiratory droplets produced by coughing and sneezing, so keep your distance (about 6 feet or more) from sick persons, especially those with flu symptoms.  If you must provide care for someone sick with flu symptoms, wear a surgical face mask over your nose and mouth, and give that person a face mask to wear when he or she is around others.
• Do everything you can to improve your health.  The healthier you are the more resistant your body is to disease.  Adopting healthy behaviors such as eating nutritious foods, being physically active, getting enough sleep, and avoiding tobacco can prevent or reduce the damage done by many diseases, including influenza.

***Flu symptoms include a fever of 100° or higher (when not taking fever medicine) plus one or more of the following:  cough, sore throat, body aches.***

• Check your temperature (before using fever-reducing medications) to determine if you might have the flu.
• If you have a fever along with any or all of the flu symptoms noted above:
• Do not go to work.  Keep children with flu symptoms home from school.
• Limit contact with and keep away from others as much as possible to avoid making others sick.  Keep your distance (about 6 feet or more) from healthy persons, to help prevent transmission of the flu.  Consider using a face mask if or when you  you must be around others.
• Cover your cough/sneeze with tissues or your sleeve/elbow.  Dispose of tissues after use.  Wash your hands with soap and warm/hot water for 15-20 seconds, or use alcohol-based hand sanitizers like Purell after coughing or sneezing.  Disinfect contaminated surfaces after coughing or sneezing.
• IMPORTANT:  Do not return to work or resume normal activities until your fever has been gone for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medicine.

IMPORTANT:  When should you call or go for medical help?

• If you are having problems breathing, cannot keep fluids down or are dehydrated because of vomiting or diarrhea, contact your primary care physician.  For true medical emergencies, call 911.
• If you have asthma, lung or heart disease, diabetes, immune system problems or other chronic medical conditions, report your flu-like symptoms to your primary care physician.

RESOURCES 

For the latest state, national, and international information on the H1N1 virus, visit

http://www.ct.gov/ctfluwatch

Additionsal information can be found at:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

World Health Organization:

www.who.int

CT Department of Public Health:

www.ct.gov/dph/swineflu

CDC Guidance for Responses to Influenza:

http://www.flu.gov/individual/index.html