Why You Must Stay Home When You Have the Flu

It's mid-February and the flu patients keep coming. Flu vaccine and screening supplies are becoming scarce at the Findlay, Ohio, medical practice where family nurse practitioner Gina Vaughn sees her patients. The influx continues as the infection spreads. "The flu season has just gotten out of control because people are not staying home," she laments. "They're not using common sense."

Slogging through the flu is miserable enough. If you try to tough it out at the workplace or power through in public, you're not doing yourself -- or anyone else -- a favor. To be a hero, stay home, say public health experts and patient care providers like Vaughn. By doing so, you help protect your co-workers, classmates, fellow worshipers, small children, pregnant women, seniors and those with chronic health conditions from exposure to the flu virus.

It's important to get an early handle on the flu to stave off complications such as pneumonia or sinus infections, or in extreme cases, a life-threatening infection called sepsis. Reach out to your health care provider sooner rather than later.

That's much more helpful than waiting until symptoms worsen and you're forced to make a midnight trip to the nearest emergency room. "They don't want you in the ER," Vaughn says. "It's too dangerous -- you could spread germs all over."

When patients develop rapid-onset fever, generalized malaise -- feeling achy and rotten all over -- and respiratory issues like a tight cough with phlegm, Vaughn suggests they visit the primary care providers' office for evaluation and treatment. Some may receive the antiviral medication Tamiflu.

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Although the best advice is for patients to stay home, rest and recover, many worry about missing work time or classes. Health care providers can lend support. For those who need it, Vaughn offers excuse notes to pardon them from the workplace or from school. She's been known to call supervisors herself. "I've gotten good, positive feedback," she says. "We don't need [the flu]," employers tell her. "We don't want to spread it to our customers."

If you've been exposed to the flu, it's not the ideal time to visit a relative in the hospital or nursing home or drop in at your child's day care center. If you must go out in public, practice good hygiene. Prevention can't be emphasized enough, Vaughn says: "You wash your hands. You put on a mask. You sneeze into your sleeve and spray [disinfectant] on it. Whatever it takes. Stay home. Stay away from people. Use sense."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends yearly flu vaccines as the best way for people to protect themselves from contracting the flu or to at least reduce its effects. Getting a flu shot also contributes to herd immunity, which helps protect entire communities from disease outbreaks when a large percentage of people participate. However, many people don't receive flu shots. In addition, flu vaccine performance varies from year to year. On Friday, the CDC reported that the 2017-2018 seasonal flu vaccine was 36 percent effective.

According to the CDC's latest flu surveillance report, influenza virus A(H3) was the most commonly identified flu subtype identified in the first week of February 2018. It's been responsible for a particularly severe form of flu. That week, 10 flu-related deaths were reported among children across the U.S. Overall, about 60 confirmed flu hospitalization occurred for every 100,000 people.

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"It's been a very busy time," says Dr. Marianna Sockrider, a pediatric pulmonologist and chief of pulmonary clinics at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, where she sees young patients with high-risk health conditions like cystic fibrosis.

When anyone in the family is exposed to the flu, they receive preventive treatment and everyone takes precautions. The sick person will virtually sequester him or herself in a bedroom. "You need to think of yourself as being in quarantine," says Sockrider, who is also an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. "Even if you're taking the antiviral drug, you're still contagious."

That approach applies to anyone with the flu. "People should not be running around doing errands because they have to be off work," Sockrider says. "Sometimes you start feeling better but that doesn't mean you aren't a risk to yourself or others." With flu, she recommends staying home until you're fever-free for at least 24 hours -- and not just experiencing temporary relief from dosing yourself with ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

Older adults in the community may not have as strong an immune system as others, which is why certain flu vaccines are specifically designed for seniors. According to the CDC, between 71 percent and 85 percent of seasonal flu-related deaths occur in people ages 65 and older, and up to 70 percent of flu-related hospitalizations occur in that age group.

Young children are more vulnerable, as well. "Very young babies have a harder time with any flu illness," Sockrider says. "Infants under 6 months of age can't get flu shots, so caregivers are all advised to get vaccines."

At your workplace, certain colleagues may be more at risk from the flu than you realize. Pregnant women, for instance, are likelier to develop severe illness. It's also possible their developing babies may be affected.

Co-workers who manage medical conditions can struggle harder with flu symptoms. Chronic conditions such as diabetes or asthma, or autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, put them at higher risk.

"Even typically healthy young people have been getting hit hard with the flu," Sockrider says. "That's been true in the past with some other flu epidemics. We shouldn't think that anyone deserves to have some exposure that we can avoid."

Flu sufferers reluctant to spend possible vacation days on sickness, or who don't want to let down employers, might drag themselves to their desks. "You're not going to work as effectively if you have fever or flu symptoms," Sockrider points out. "So are you really doing them a service?" There's a better approach, she says: "If you recognize symptoms promptly and get treated, you can potentially get well faster."

[See: 9 Ways to Boost Your Immune System.]

Recuperating at home protects you as well as others. "If you have the flu, you, too, are now more vulnerable," Sockrider says. "Your body is under attack, so you could get a secondary infection. Why would you want to go out and expose yourself to something more when your body is still trying to get over a major illness?"

Tending to the flu at home allows you to really focus on symptoms. Along with any medications you're prescribed, it's a chance to treat flu achiness, sneezing and fever with over-the-counter products in private. It's an opportunity to open your congested airways with steamy showers and to drink plenty of water, sip some hot soup and above all, rest.

Lisa Esposito is a Patient Advice reporter at U.S. News. She covers health conditions, drawing on experience as an RN in oncology and other areas and as a research coordinator at the National Institutes of Health. Esposito previously reported on health care with Gannett, and she received her journalism master's degree at Georgetown University. You can follow her on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at lesposito@usnews.com.