Keep your house clean, keep influenza out

Wash your hands often, change clothes as soon as you get home, and use homemade chlorine disinfectants.

Words and photos by Taichung City Government
Translated by Naomi Lai

"The severity of the new influenza is definitely different from SARS. There is no need to panic," says Taichung Hospital Chief Pediatrician Dr. Ming-Gong Chen. The death rate for this strain of influzenza is only one to four out of a thousand, so it is not as dangerous as SARS. As long as the general public follows through with health self-management measures, and keeps fresh air and sunshine flowing through their homes, they can reduce their chances of contracting the virus.

Below are health self-management tips provided by the Taichung Public Health Bureau:
-Reduce travel to crowded locations, and avoid visiting patients in the hospital. Keep fresh air flowing with opened windows when indoors.

-Wash hands often with soap or hand cleansers, especially before eating and holding small children, but also after visiting the doctor, using the restroom and sneezing. Also try not to touch your nose and mouth unless necessary. When normal soap and hand cleansers are not available, use of an alcohol-based gel hand cleanser with a 60% or more alcoholic content is recommended.

-People with respiratory ailments/symptoms should stay home and keep a one or two meter distance from others. Masks are a must if one needs to leave the house.

-Proper use of masks: Normal surgical, cotton or paper-based masks can prevent contact with virus infested aerosols. Those who are not ill don't need to wear masks, unless they are in close contact with a patient. After such contact, the mask should be thrown away and hands should be washed with soap. When using a mask, be sure that the mask completely covers the mouth and the nose. When the mask becomes moist, it should be changed immediately. Paper masks can be used only once and cotton ones need to be washed after use.

-When influenza-like symptoms are detected (fever, sneezing, running nose, chills or sores), masks can reduce contact with virus infested aerosols. Besides visits to the doctor, the patient should avoid leaving the house. Once diagnoised with influenza, whether it is a mild or critical case, the patient should not go to work or school and stay at home to rest.

Dr. Ming-Gong Chen also suggests changing clothing and bathing right after returning home, or at least removing one's outermost layer of clothing and air-drying it in a sunny open space outside. He also suggests regularly disinfecting door knobs, the floor and places like escalators where people often make physical contact with their hands, in order to reduce contracting and spreading the virus.

The Department of Environmental Protection suggests that the public mix 10cc of store-bought chlorine-based disinfectants (such as bleach, with a 5-6% chlorine concentration) with one liter of water (a bottle and half of a standard 600cc mineral-water bottle) to make a 500㏄ppm homemade chlorine disinfectant for the household use.