Flu bug has flown in

When absenteeism at the high school is at 23 percent or so, you know there's a "bug" making the rounds.

My granddaughter, 15, had the flu last week. Many people get very sick with this and it needs to be taken seriously.

This isn't the country's first bout with "swine" flu; there was a serious outbreak of it in the early 1970s. In fact, my sister died from what was determined to be complications from the flu.

There are some things you can do to lessen your chances of getting this bug. Some simple things include:

1. Washing your hands thoroughly and often. Use water as hot as you can stand it and lots of soap. The rule of thumb is to wash your hands for as long as it takes you to sing the "Happy Birthday" song through two times. Be sure to wash around your wrists and under your fingernails.

2. If you are in a public restroom, hold a paper towel in your hand to turn off the faucets and to open the door to leave. Then either toss the towel in the wastebasket as you walk out the door or put it in your pocket to throw away later. If I am at a buffet, I use individual hand wipes after I go to the buffet. The serving spoons have been handled by everyone. Just makes sense to wash your hands after dishing up your food or use an individual wipe before eating.

3. At home, use disinfectant wipes to clean off the handles of all doors, cupboards, refrigerator and anything else everyone in the family touches often. Maybe it will help, maybe it won't, but at least you'll feel like you've done your best.

4. They used to say you should sneeze or cough into your hand. Then what do you do with that hand? You open doors, turn on faucets, etc. The current advice is to cough or sneeze into your shirt or blouse sleeve.

5. Make sure your diet includes plenty of liquids, preferably water, tea or fruit juices.

6. The most important thing you can do to help everyone - yourself included - is to stay home if you are sick. Stay in your room as much as possible to avoid infecting others in the family and wash your hands whenever you are going to open a cupboard door, or handle clean dishes. (In fact, it would be a good idea to keep Styrofoam cups and disposable forks and spoons and plates on hand to use so they can just be thrown away.)

7. See your doctor within the first 24 hours of symptoms. There might be something they can prescribe that could help you.

8. If you have underlying health issues, you might want to avoid large crowds until the flu bug has flown on to other communities.

9. Keep your hands out of your eyes, nose and mouth!