Keep Your Nasty Germs to Yourself!  by Jason McDonald


There is nothing more annoying than working with someone insists on coming to work sick.  Even more annoying is when that sick person coughs and sneezes behind you all day long.  You can’t help but to imagine all of their airborne germs shooting past you unseen, but yet felt.  Everything seems fine for the day, but then…later…you feel it.  Your throat starts to tickle, and then you sneeze…a small kitten sneeze at first, but eventually your sneezes lift you from your seat.  Your stomach makes that gurgling, watery noise.  You feel flushed and hot.  Your nose and chest fill up with fluid. 

It has happened – your coworker has gotten you sick.

My fear is not that I will infect you, but that you will infect me.  Having HIV doesn’t mean I get sick more often, but it does mean that it takes me longer to recover from the flu or other such illness.    Sadly, people in this day and age still fear HIV.  They still whisper about you behind their back.  They needlessly worry about their “safety”.  The fact is you can’t get my HIV from working in an office with me.  Trust me - your germs are much more of a danger to ME than I am to YOU.

According to the CDC, there are an estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV in the US.  During flu season, people with HIV are at an increased risk to complications related to the flu, such as pneumonia, than at other times of the year.  This leads to an increased risk for hospitalization as well.  People with HIV also are at an increased risk of death, yes death, from the flu than someone who is HIV negative.   The flu is responsible for an estimated 36,000 deaths per year.  This is not a small number.  That is equivalent to 9/11 happening each month of the year. 

        Sometimes all it takes to prevent the spread of illness if simple hygiene:  wash your hands thoroughly several times throughout the day, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, or better yet do not come to work at all.  Use hand sanitizer frequently…all it takes to get the flu or a cold is to touch an elevator button and then touch your eye or nose.  Getting the flu vaccination may not always be effective because sometimes, like this year, there is a strain of flu being spread that is not covered by the vaccination. 

Believing you are HIV negative is NOT the same as KNOWING you are HIV negative.  Get tested!!  Follow me on Twitter @jjemcdonald.

For more information on how flu affects HIV, please visit http://www.flu.gov/at-risk/health-conditions/hiv-aids/index.html.  Or visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/hiv-flu.htm.  

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