Top Tips to Avoid Colds and Flu this Winter

• On the go hand hygiene
• Family

Having a cold or the flu can be really debilitating leaving you unable to carry on with your everyday activities. You are not alone, an estimated 189 million school days and 150 million work days are missed every year due to colds¹.

During cold and flu season, infection can spread on surfaces. Although hands and surfaces may look clean, you need to clean and disinfect to kill bacteria and viruses.

Cold and flu viruses can be passed from an infected person’s nose onto their hands and surfaces, such as door handles and telephones, either by touching, sneezing or coughing on them. If you touch an infected person’s hands or the surfaces they have contaminated, and then touch your nose or eyes, you may become infected too. 63% of adults pass on their cold or flu to other people and 56% of people don’t always wash their hands after sneezing or blowing their nose².

Flu virus can live on surfaces for up to 2 days and the cold virus up to 7 days.

To help prevent against cold and flu this season follow these easy steps to help keep yourself and your family healthy.

• Wash your hands regularly with an antibacterial soap or hand wash to kill bacterias
• Spray surfaces that people often touch with their hands like door handles, taps and kitchen surfaces with an anti-bacterial spray to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses
• Wipe away using a clean cloth or antibacterial disposable wipe to help prevent spreading bacteria or viruses which build up on kitchen cloths.

Once you’ve picked up the virus, symptoms usually appear within 10 – 48 hours and may last for 7 – 14 days. However, you can infect others even a day or so before your symptoms begin and young children can spread the flu virus even into the second week of being ill.

• If someone in your family does have cold or flu in addition try to allow plenty of rest and keep separate from the rest of the family if possible to avoid spreading the virus. Dettol Disinfectant Spray is proven to kill Cold and Flu viruses and can be used in sick rooms.
• Contagious bacteria and viruses such as Influenza and E.coli can survive in low temperature wash loads, increasing the potential risk of infection to the family. Dettol Anti-bacterial Laundry Cleanser is an additive proven to kill 99.9% of bacteria in temperatures as low as 30°C, ensuring the family laundry is hygienically clean this cold & flu season.

References

¹ http://www.bigdog.co.uk/articles/health/wellbeing/how-to-cope-with-acold-or-flu

² Global Hygiene Council 2015 Research