Carrying a hand sanitizer, elbowing doors open, and keeping your hands away from your face are probably second nature habits for you. But avoiding germs becomes more difficult when the people in your home are sick.
That's true if your kids, roommates, or partner have seasonal colds or a more serious illness, like the flu or the new coronavirus. When a family member gets sick, other family members are likely to get sick because of their proximity.
And of course, as germs spread throughout the house, the task becomes that much more challenging. But there are strategies you can try, even at home, to reduce the chances of getting sick from roommates or family members.
9 tricks to avoid contagion between family members and roommates
Limit contact with the sick person
If possible, your best strategy is to isolate the family member who is ill. This is particularly recommended for flu and COVID-19, as both involve respiratory spread; that is, droplets with the viruses that are spread in the air when the infected person breathes, sneezes, coughs, etc.
You will also want to avoid contact with any items the sick person touches. Family members should be especially careful to avoid sharing towels, washcloths, or drinking from the same glass, cup, or straw.
If someone in your home has COVID-19, put on disposable gloves before handling your clothes. Wash your dishes with gloves too.
Can you get sick from sleeping in the same bed?
If your partner is sick, stay away during the night hours as well. Sleeping in separate rooms, if possible, will help reduce the transmission of infections.
Also, even though sleeping on the couch isn't the most comfortable option, it's probably better than trying to sleep with cold-induced snoring or coughing fits in the middle of the night.
Encourage good bathroom hygiene
If you have a house with two bathrooms, it is a good idea to designate one for the sick person. If you don't have multiple bathrooms, it is recommended to follow these best practices:
- Ventilate. Turn on the extractor, both while the person with the infection is using the facility and after they leave. If you don't have an exhaust fan, leaving the window open for just an inch will help.
- Close the lid . People in the environment should close the toilet seat before flushing. Flushing the toilet can spray stool throughout the room. And, COVID-19 can be found in feces, according to a May 2020 article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, making this a potentially infectious (not to mention serious) situation.
- Wash your hands Washing your hands after using the bathroom should be part of everyone's routine anyway. But it's especially important for people in bad weather to put gel on after they leave; after all, they will knock on the bathroom door knob next! Contact with feces can cause colds.
Avoid going to the bathroom immediately after someone sick has used it. It is best to give bioaerosols (small particles that contain viruses) time to dissipate.
Wash your hands
By now, you're a pro at hand washing – you know you have to do it every time you enter your home from the outside and lather for a full 20 seconds.
Stick to this habit, but increase the frequency: you will want to wash your hands every time you come into contact with the sick person in your home. You will also want to lather after coming into contact with something the sick person is holding, from the TV remote to a cup of tea.
And of course, you want to avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth, as if you do it with germs on your hand, you can contract the virus.
Consider wearing a mask
For most of us, once we get home and wash our hands, it's a real treat to (carefully) tear off our mask. But if you are at home with someone who is sick, you may want to wear a cloth mask when you come in contact with them to avoid contagion.
If the person who is sick wears the mask and other people at home also, we protect each other from the spread of respiratory droplets with viruses.
People with COVID-19 should wear a mask when around other people at home, and caregivers may consider doing so as well.
Clean surfaces frequently
Germs can easily spread on surfaces.
For example, a sick person blows his nose, then mindlessly opens the kitchen trash can to deposit a tissue. A few minutes later, he walks over and touches the very lid of the trash can, potentially covered in germs. Also, when sick people sneeze or cough, droplets containing the cold virus (or any other virus) can fall to the surface.
The virus remains on surfaces for at least a few hours. And that's also the case for cold and flu viruses. It is difficult to always wash your hands before touching a surface before another family member appears and touches the same surface.
Clean high-touch surfaces (doorknobs, railings, mailbox lid, light switches, refrigerator door, etc.), first with soap and water and then with a disinfectant. Wear disposable gloves or cleaning gloves during this process. By cleaning, you will physically remove germs, while disinfection kills any remaining germs.
Ventilate the space
When a sick person sneezes, coughs, or even exhales, the air fills with droplets full of germs. So just as you spend time removing germs from surfaces, you will also want to make an effort to eradicate them from the air.
If you think about airborne viruses, they will accumulate over time in a room unless you remove them in one of two ways: you remove them through ventilation or clean them from the air through filtration.
The first strategy is the simplest: if you can, open a window to increase circulation. But sometimes that is not possible. Perhaps you find yourself in a high-rise building with windows that won't open, or the temperatures are simply too low to let in cool outside air.
In that case, you can choose to clean the air with an air cleaner or an air purifier with a HEPA filter.
Use a humidifier
If you have a humidifier, it can help to run it if someone in your house is sick. For one thing, your body's respiratory defenses work best when it's less dry. Dry air means that your nasal passages can dry out, making them more susceptible to viruses.
Also, by running the humidifier, it will increase the humidity in your home. That's a good thing, as most viruses survive better in lower humidity. When there is more humidity, respiratory droplets do not evaporate as quickly. And that means they stay heavier and will settle in the air.
When researchers simulated an exam room to try to understand whether humidity contributes to the risk of transmission of influenza from aerosols, they found that at low humidity levels, influenza "retains maximum infectivity," according to a February 2013 study. in PLOS One. Researchers note that keeping indoor humidity above 40 percent will reduce the spread of the aerosol flu virus.
Get a flu shot
Ideally, you will get vaccinated at the beginning of the flu season, which is usually mid-October. That's because it takes two weeks for the vaccine to be effective in fighting the flu.
Getting the flu shot is the best strategy to avoid getting the flu. But if someone in your house has the flu and has not yet had the vaccine, go to the pharmacy or medical clinic to get vaccinated and avoid contagion.
Sleep enough
You want to stay healthy to avoid getting sick. Start by getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep is associated with immune suppression, so the ability to fight infection decreases.
You will also want to eat a healthy diet and get a moderate amount of exercise . Staying well-rested and hydrated may not prevent the transmission of an upper respiratory infection, but it may allow one to recover more quickly and not be as ill as those who are generally not as well rested.
Should you take vitamins and supplements to avoid contagion?
When someone in your house is sick, you may have an urge to swallow handfuls of vitamins, take zinc, or drink giant glasses of orange juice to load up on vitamin C. In moderate amounts, vitamins and supplements cannot hurt, but there is no overwhelming scientific evidence to support its use.
An exception could be vitamin D. People with low levels of vitamin D may be more susceptible to infections. Taking vitamin D as a supplement protects against respiratory tract infections, particularly for people who are deficient in the sunshine vitamin, according to a February 2017 meta-analysis published in the BMJ.
