Bm@il
Every week BARBARA FISHER looks at issues that affect us all – the issues that get you talking. You can join in by emailing bmailbarbara@gmail.com
JOY. We are coming up to the runny nose season again. Last year I had a stinker of a cold which lasted for weeks.
People say ‘only a cold’ but they do vary, don’t they? I felt really ill and got fed up because I missed loads of things, including a quiz for the Mayor’s charity which Mr F valiantly still attended. I’m pleased to report they didn’t make him sit on a table alone with his bottle of wine and single plastic glass. (We had been instructed to take our own booze).
I’m hoping not to have a re-run of that particular strain, or is it a fact that you never get the same nasty little cold germ more than once?
Acute viral rhinopharyngitis, to give it its proper name, is the most common viral infectious disease in humans. That’s why it’s called the ‘common’ cold.
So why are we being told in a series of radio and TV announcements that if we are feeling unwell – EVEN IF IT’S JUST A COUGH OR A COLD – we should go to a pharmacy?
What? Give me strength. In fact, give me industrial strength paracetamol, a strepsil, and lots of sleep. That’s all we need, and have done for decades.
The old advice not to spray people with your germs still holds, particularly on an underground train where it’s too easy to share bodily fluids with strangers in sweaty summers and sneezy winters.
We were told to always have a hankie (now tissues) to sneeze into, rather than spraying family and friends. The slogan ‘coughs and sneezes spread diseases’ was hammered home with the force of a ... erm ... hammer
Mr F and I suffered from airborne nasties when we were on a cruise in 2012. We were eating our dinner when a man became ill as he was leaving the dining room.
He threw up on the stairs near us. We were advised to wash our hands.
Within a few hours I was displaying the unsavoury signs of Norovirus. Mr F followed shortly afterwards.
We were confined to our cabins and cared for by a special team who sprayed us with disinfectant and fed us from cardboard plates.
The ship was rife with it. We recovered after 48 hours.
Time is all you need to recover from a cold. If there are complications, or a cough lasts a long time, yes, see a doc. Otherwise rest and take a Lemsip.
If we all follow the latest advice, Boots will have queues longer than Primark.
But without the
Santa hats.