Vol. 38, No. 18

1-24-2008
By: Kristen Convery

Preparing for the threat: Common-sense precautions make battle easier

University experts say people shouldn’t spend much time worrying about catching infections. For one thing, their skin does a pretty good job of taking care of them, said Larry Schlesinger, director of the infectious diseases division at the Ohio State Medical Center.

“Our bodies’ defenses are actually extremely potent to fight infection,” he said.

“Most infections are treatable. You go to your doctor, a diagnosis is made and you get better. We have patients who’ve been cured of infections every day, who walk out of this hospital healthy.”

Patients whose immune systems have been compromised, such as those with HIV, may need to take additional precautions; but for most folks, Schlesinger’s tips for avoiding disease are simple: Eat a healthy diet and remember to wash your hands.

“Beyond that, I don’t think any of us should live in fear,” he said.

Frank Holtzhauer, director of the Ohio Center for Public Health Preparedness, believes people would feel a lot less anxious about the specter of deadly disease if they took steps to make themselves feel more in control.

“What we can do is plan for our own home and our own family,” he said.

Holtzhauer recommends tuning out the breathless TV coverage of bird flu and other infectious diseases and concentrating on solid information. Read a scientific journal, he suggested, or check the Web sites for the Centers for Disease Control or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s emergency preparedness campaign.

Those sites are “very factual and non-alarming and give you concrete things that you can do,” he said. The Homeland Security site, for example, offers directions for making an emergency preparedness kit.

Asked if he is worried about an infectious disease such as pandemic flu taking over the country, John Reeve, chair of Ohio State’s Microbiology Department, said: “Only in the same sense I’m worried about being run over. Both have a likely probability. How likely? . . . A lot of it’s hype.”

Besides, with infectious disease, oftentimes you have no choice.

“Ultimately,” Reeve said, “if somebody coughs in your face, you’re going to get the flu.”

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