• Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.

• Stay home when you are sick.  If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. This will help prevent spreading your illness to others.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.  Germs are often spread when a person touches something that is contaminated with germs and then touches his or her eyes, nose, or mouth.

• Practice other good health habits, especially when someone is ill. Take a good multi vitamin and probiotic.  Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids, and eat nutritious food.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces at home, work or school, device touch screens, keyboards, phones, door handles, steering wheels, shopping cart handles etc. regularly.  If the house must be vacuumed while you are ill, it is best someone else performs that task. Leave the house and allow the house to air out for several hours before returning. If vacuuming can wait till you are well that is better.

• Change furnace filters regularly.   Use an air purifier with negative ionizer.

• Change your hand towels and bedding, especially pillowcases regularly. 

• Use the dishwasher’s hot wash setting to disinfect eating utensils and dishes or use paper plates, cups and plastic silverware and discard.  Avoid using plastic dishware if they are not put through the dishwasher on a sanitizing cycle.
  
  
• Replace toothbrushes. 
  
  
• Nutritional and herbal products that may help fight infections and boost immune system include:  Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Ionic zinc and nascent iodine, Elderberry, Ginseng, Turmeric, Goldenseal, Olive Leaf, Oregano Oil, Garlic, Echinacea, Astragalus, Essential oil blends like Thieves (YL), Armor (melaleuca) or  OnGuard(DT). Oscillococcinum, Olba’s oil, cough syrup, nasal spray etc. Thymus support through glandulars and thymus tapping can be very helpful.

• Practice cough and cold etiquette. The fact is that cold etiquette is more than simple good manners; it’s a matter of good health, for you and your community. Here are five etiquette tips to follow when you’re coughing, sneezing, and showing other signs of a contagious cold:

• Sneeze into your elbow, not your hand. As kids, most people were taught to cover their nose and mouth with their hands when they sneeze. But then where does that leave your germs? All over your hands, of course. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been campaigning to get kids (and adults too) to learn to sneeze into their elbows instead. “You can’t get to a sink immediately,” says Kathryn Teng, MD, a physician in the department of internal medicine and director of clinical integration of personalized health care at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “And you touch so many things. It’s really a great way to contain germs.”
• Wash or sanitize hands frequently. When it comes to washing your hands, “you really just can’t do it enough in the wintertime,” says Dr. Teng. Of course, you can get viruses, colds, and the flu any time of year. But “it’s more rampant in wintertime because we’re inside and in closer quarters.” So head to the sink, soap up, and scrub up after you sneeze, before you eat, and any other chance you get.
• Warn others that you’re just getting over the flu. Haller’s son was born during cold and flu season. She had a houseguest show up, planning to smooch all over that new baby, knowing full well that she was sick. It’s just good manners and common courtesy, she says, to let someone know that you’re sick before you show up to find out if it’s still okay to come over.
• Stay home if you’re not feeling well. If you have a fever or are just overall feeling sick, it’s best to stay home, says Teng. That way you’re not putting so many others at risk. And at work or school, those confined spaces are perfect for trapping germs and spreading them all around. Your boss and your child’s teacher will thank you for your consideration and your help in preventing the spread of your illness to the whole group.
• Excuse yourself from shaking hands during cold and flu season or if you’re sick. What’s worse than seeing a sniffling, sneezing person extending her hand for you to shake? You don’t want to be rude and ignore her, but it’s not exactly polite to offer a germy hand in the first place. “I think it’s rude when people know that they’re sick and they go ahead and shake people’s hands,” says Haller. “Don’t cough or blow your nose and then hold out your hand for me to shake.” Instead, simply politely excuse yourself by saying something like, “Excuse me for not shaking your hand, but I’ve been sick.” Your friends and colleagues will appreciate the gesture — and not sharing your germs.