March 16, 2010
Health Services
Prevention Steps
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 4 main ways you and your family may keep from getting sick with the flu at school and at home. Parents are encouraged to discuss these healthy habits with children before school starts:
- Practice good hand hygiene by washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow or shoulder; not into your hands.
- Stay home if you or your child is sick for at least 24 hours after there is no longer a fever or signs of a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medicine). Keeping sick students at home means that they keep their viruses to themselves rather than sharing them with others.
- Get your family vaccinated for seasonal flu and 2009 H1N1 flu when vaccines are available.
Basic information about H1N1 flu and you, including how to take care of a sick person and what to do if you get sick is available through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
