Hello All
The flu is hitting hard in my state as well as others
Realitively healthy adults as well as a few children have passed away,and I C U s are full of poor sufferers.
The strain was not covered in this years flu shot, but they say if
had it ,it seems to not be as terrible.
i never get the flu shot, and my internist(not my rheumi)said actually since my immune system is compromised from pred, ( and. now methotrexate) probably wouldnt have built up immunity anyway.
I am being to second guess this, and wonder what the community thinks.
I will ask my rheumi tomorrow as well.
Never got the flu, even without the shots over the years, but have never been on these meds...
Hand washing like crazy, and trying to stay out of crowds..
Thanks,
Gina
Hi gina30088
Preds do compromise your immune system so you have no immunity. When i was on pred, even though i had flu shots i still got colds and flu. Do as you are doing stay in as much as possible, keep away from crowds and if you do go out cover your nose and mouth with a scarf and wear gloves to protect your hands from being in contact with door handles and germs...also hand washing or using antibacterial .....my best wishes to you gina30088
I thought I was the only one scared of picking up germs from door handles etc. I hate using public loos even in good department stores because often their loos aren't as well maintained as they should be.
I’ve got antiviral foam from Boots (in the UK). I’m not sure how well it works, but it can’t be too bad as I’ve never caught colds/flu when I’ve used it, although I avoid opening doors/holding onto rails with my bare hands. It’s a shame other people can’t be more careful. Straight out of the loo to the outside door without going anywhere near soap and water!
The antibacterial stuff gives me very sorry hands so is this kinder on the skin?
It's alcohol free and very mild. According to the bottle, it "kills 99.9% of viruses and harmful bacteria" and "is kind to sensitive skin". It's made by Boots.
Is it to use as a hand wash or afterwards or do you use it just before you go out. I must admit I think I'm getting a bit neurotic about germs but I do seem constantly I'll with colds or fever.
I always get the flu shot and my rheumy is recommending it. The flu is also spread by airborne particles breathed out by persons coming down with the flu and not yet showing symptoms. Avoiding crowds is a great help because we all breathe the same air. Since I take Vit D3 I have not had a cold in 2 years on pred even though my husband had colds.
(Retired nurse anesthetist)
You just need a couple of squirts applied onto dry hands. Apparently it's active for up to six hours, but I squirt/hand wash more frequently than that.
The instructions on the bottle:
Apply 1 to 2 pumps onto dry hands and rub well together until dry. Repeat as necessary. Do not rinse off.
It gives me peace of mind, although of course you can't avoid the bugs you inhale when someone coughs, sneezes or breathes over you, but I feel it's something, as we have to touch so many surfaces and objects when we're out and about.
Excellent tip about keeping hands clean. First of all we stop ourselves from transferring germs but more importantly for our own selves is we invariably touch our faces from time to time, and if our hands are contaminated that's when we might be infecting ourselves. Never rub your eyes, for example. Might as well be giving yourself an injection of cold or flu viruses!
When travelling pack some alcohol wipes and wipe down surfaces - like the drop down tray on the airplane, remote controls, light switches, etc, in hotel rooms, and so forth - anything commonly touched by people. I've done this lately and always hand a couple of the packets, with explanation, to my seatmate, generally a stranger as I've travelled alone the last couple of times, and they've actually used them!
I can't touch the alcohol wipes I'm allergic to them and my skin peels. I will be getting some antiviral hand foam though. I'm nephrotic about touching my hands to my eyes. Luckily I wear glasses which help to stop me but what do you do about pets? We've a dog and I go round a fairly large garden gathering up her poo in the proper bags but I have a bag on each hand and once I've scooped with one bag carefully put it in the other before I tie it off even so after putting them in the rubbish bin I go in straightaway and was my hands. We go through a lot of bags. Also put a post on to Eileen asking what the different abbreviations for inflammation markers mean. Can you tell me as well please
The trouble is, antibacterial wipes/gel have no effect with viruses or Norovirus. The only protection you have with Norovirus is handwashing with soap and water. My mum caught Norovirus from the screen/magazines/safety card (well known to be contaminated with bugs) on a plane as she was handed her tray of food, couldn’t get out of her seat to wash her hands (people and food trolley in the way) and hoped the hand gel she had would give her a degree of protection. Sadly not, and it wasn’t long before she and several other people on the same flight were isolated on the cruise ship she’d boarded. She discovered that the same plane had transported passengers home from a Norovirus infected cruise ship.
I have heard that unless the hand cleanser contains alcohol it is ineffective. That's why I use alcohol wipes, the same ones that would be used to disinfect your skin if you were getting a needle or blood taken. But how does some one like Porgi deal with this situation if alcohol cannot be used?
It’s difficult. Handwashing is the most effective protection, but not always practical when out and about. The non-alcohol antiviral foam is effective against both bacteria and viruses.
Soap and water deal with most things - and much of the advertising hype on the gels is OTT.
The sort of dose of pred we are on for PMR doesn't suppress the immune sysem as much as in GCA or other immunosuppressant drugs. I get very few infections and there are quite a lot of others who find the same.
Having the flu shot may not induce as good a response as if you weren't on pred, but it still produces some antibodies and so prepares your body to some extent if it meets the flus included in the vaccine. At least 50% of the flu variations in a year are covered usually and I think this year is no different. So it will have provided some experience for your body to half of what it might meet. Without any previous exposure you are likely to be made more ill.
It's another case of "Every little helps".
And a study found that you wearing a face mask DOES reduce the chances of you catching other people's bugs. A face mask and a scarf around your face is another contributor to every little helps.
But how practical is it to carry a bucket of soapy water around with you, plus clean towels, when what you want to do is disinfect things like seat trays, light switches and tv remotes? Of course washing our hands with soapy water is best, but then we recontaminate ourselves the moment we touch these other objects.
I don't use gels. I use disinfecting alcohol swabs.
What I'm trying to say is that alcohol is not 100% effective. You need both really.
Or we could just stay home and never go anywhere!