Brief by Skye Ridley
Public Health – February 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
It seems like everybody gets sick this time of year; do you know anyone who hasn’t? We call it either a cold or “that crud that’s going around.” But most of us aren’t really sure what we have, and it seems like everyone has different symptoms.
I get asked about it, because I work at the hospital. I’m only a PR geek, but just working in the same building as doctors and nurses apparently qualifies me to dispense medical advice. However, I decided I’d better ask a doc, just to be safe. I talked with Dr. Jim Wigington; he’s a family practice physician in Salida, so I figured he sees a lot of patients with colds and flu. When I asked him about “that crud that’s going around,” he smiled and knew exactly what I meant.
He said that what I was referring to actually encompasses a lot of different things. “Most of the time, when people say they have a cold or ‘the crud,’ they have viral infections with upper-respiratory-infection- or head-cold-type symptoms. It spreads quickly because it’s a virus, and different towns can have different strains of the same type of virus or even a completely different virus.”
I asked him why viruses spread so fast. “Because when a virus stays in a moist environment it lives longer, and people provide that environment when they forget to use good personal hygiene. When they cough, how many people will go wash their hands right away? They might go to great pains to throw the Kleenex away, but they don’t wash their hands. Then the virus spreads via drinking fountains and shaking hands. And when someone sneezes without a tissue, all the particulates get sprayed into the air. It’s easy for viruses to get passed around.”
What should we do if we catch “the crud?” Nothing new here. Wigington said, “Treat the symptoms. Stay hydrated and get lots of quality rest. Practice good hygiene, but don’t get paranoid about it. And if the symptoms don’t go away in a reasonable amount of time, see a physician.”
Is it always caused by viruses? “Yes, but sometimes a cold can go on to become bacterial. In other words, the person can get a secondary infection. This is rare, but it can happen.”
What about the local crud that everyone in the Upper Arkansas River Valley seems to get? He nodded. “It’s different every year. There are two types of the crud this time. Some people have a ‘stomach thing,’ with diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. Others experience horrible coughs and runny noses, and their ears get plugged up and hurt a lot. As always, the young, sick or elderly need to take special care. But in most people, it’s self-limiting as long as you maintain good hydration. Same prescription for both types, though: rest a lot and drink plenty of fluids.”
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I was curious about how the bugs get spread around the country. He explained, “In addition to the usual person-to-person contact within an area, people who travel carry the bugs with them. If you come home sick to Buena Vista from a trip to Seattle, then Buena Vista gets the bug. But someone else comes home to Salida with a bug he picked up in Atlanta, then all of a sudden you have two communities in close proximity which have a totally different bug.”
What about the flu? Is it true that the flu shot can make you sick, or even cause the flu, as I’ve heard a number of friends and co-workers swear? “People don’t get the flu from a flu shot. But if someone has an allergy to eggs, which are used to manufacture the vaccine, or if someone is sensitive to the preservatives in certain vaccines, or if someone coincidentally has a different infection, then they could experience some flu-like symptoms.’
“And keep in mind that the people who decide which type of flu the vaccine is developed to fight had to make that decision a year ago. They do a good job predicting which flu will be most prevalent, but many types of new flu develop every year, so there’s always a chance that the vaccine won’t be one hundred percent effective. However, even if you do get the flu, if you’ve had a flu shot, you’ll get a less severe case.
Why does the flu come from Asia, anyway? “It mutates in swine and fowl and then spreads to humans. It’s just a guess, but many more people in Asia live in close proximity to farm animals, so I suspect that’s why it originates there.”
I plan to wash my hands a lot and avoid Chinese chickens. Anything to avoid having to stay home and watch soap operas.
