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Stay Healthy this Flu Season: Tips to Reduce the Risk of the Flu

With flu season upon us, it’s important to take steps to protect yourself and your loved ones in order to stay healthy. ChristianaCare urges everyone in our community to follow these important tips to maintain good health and reduce the spread of the flu.

Note to editors and reporters: ChristianaCare health care providers are available for interviews regarding this year’s flu season. Contact ChristianaCare Senior Communications Manager Arshon Howard at arshon.howard@christianacare.org for more information.

Vaccination Protects from Serious Illness

The single best way to reduce the risk of seasonal flu and its potentially serious complications is to get vaccinated each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges both an updated COVID-19 shot and a yearly flu vaccine for everyone age 6 months and older. Staying up to date with your recommended vaccines reduces the risk of severe disease and hospitalization. Older adults, pregnant parents and babies should additionally consider the RSV vaccine.

What Vaccinations Should I Get?

• Everyone age 6 months and older should get the COVID-19 and flu updated 2024-25 vaccines.
• Pregnant parents during weeks 32-36 of pregnancy during RSV season should get the RSV vaccine. (Babies entering or born during RSV season may be immunized with the antibody nirsevimab—talk to your pediatrician.)
• People ages 60 and over at high risk of severe RSV, and everyone age 75 and older should get the RSV vaccine.

Follow These Additional Tips to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season:

Avoid close contact. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick, too. Putting physical distance between yourself and others can help lower the risk of spreading a respiratory virus.

Stay home when you are sick. If possible, stay home from work, school and errands when you’re sick. You can go back to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:

1. Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
2. You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).

Cover your mouth and nose. Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick. Influenza viruses spread mainly by droplets made when people with the flu cough, sneeze or talk. Wearing a mask is another way to protect yourself and others. When worn by a person with an infection, masks reduce the spread of the virus to others. Masks can also protect wearers from breathing in infectious particles from people around them.

Clean your hands. Washing your hands often will help protect you from germs. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs can be spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches the eyes, nose or mouth.

Take steps for cleaner air. You can improve air quality by bringing in fresh outside air, purifying indoor air or gathering outdoors. Cleaner air can reduce the risk of exposure to viruses.

Practice hygiene and other healthy habits. Cleaning frequently touched surfaces, such as countertops, handrails and doorknobs regularly can help prevent the spread of some illnesses. Also, get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious food.

These simple but effective steps can make a difference in keeping everyone healthy this flu season. Together, we can keep our community safe and healthy.

“During flu season, prevention is key,” said Priyanka Dixit-Patel, M.D., physician executive for Primary Care at ChristianaCare. “It’s essential to protect yourself and others. Getting vaccinated is your first line of defense, but healthy habits like proper handwashing are just as important.

“Small actions can make a big difference in keeping our communities healthy. Prevention is always easier than recovery.”

If you need care, we are here for you

Your health and safety are our priority. To find out where you can receive your flu vaccination at ChristianaCare, visit Get Your Flu Shot. You can also receive your flu shot at local retail pharmacies, community flu clinics and other locations. To locate other flu vaccine options near you, visit Vaccines.gov/find-vaccines. You may also seek COVID-19 testing at your doctor’s office or an urgent care center if you require medical care. To find vaccination sites near you, visit https://www.vaccines.gov/en/.

     

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About ChristianaCare

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, ChristianaCare is one of the country’s most dynamic health care organizations, centered on improving health outcomes, and innovating to make high-quality care more accessible, equitable and affordable. ChristianaCare includes an extensive network of primary care and outpatient services, home health care, urgent care centers, three hospitals (1,430 beds), a freestanding emergency department, a Level I trauma center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit, a comprehensive stroke center and regional centers of excellence in heart and vascular care, cancer care and women’s health. It also includes the pioneering Gene Editing Institute.

ChristianaCare is nationally recognized as a great place to work, rated by Forbes as one of the nation’s best employers for diversity and inclusion. ChristianaCare is rated by Newsweek as one of the World’s Best Hospitals and is continually ranked among the best in the U.S. in national quality and safety ratings. ChristianaCare is a nonprofit teaching health system with more than 260 residents and fellows. With its groundbreaking Center for Virtual Health and a focus on population health and value-based care, ChristianaCare is shaping the future of health care.

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