By Amanda Tennant, staff writer
Winter. It’s the official season of snowflakes, hot chocolate, and holiday cheer. However, despite its festive charms, winter also notoriously hosts the official season of sniffles, headaches, and colds.
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, over 1.1 million Americans contract illness during the winter months.
Indian Trail High School and Academy is no different. According to Janet Leiting, ITHS & A attendance secretary, there are more students who miss school due to sickness in the winter than any other season.
With a variety of illnesses pestering the school, here are some of the major ones and how they can be prevented:
The most infamous illness during the winter season is seasonal influenza, or as it is more commonly known, the flu. The flu is a highly contagious virus that affects areas in the respiratory system such as the throat, lungs, and nose. Symptoms of the flu range from stuffy nose, sore throat, and body aches to fever, fatigue, and headaches.
Due to its contagiousness, 20 percent of the United States population will be impacted by the flu each year, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
However, the virus is controllable. A popular myth
about how ailments such as the flu spread during the winter is that cold weather invites illnesses, thus resulting in an epidemic of sick people. However, that is not proven to be true.
According to Dr. John Segreti of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, in winter, we spend more time indoors due to the cold and are thus more exposed to other people and susceptible to their illnesses including the flu, which is spread when infected individuals cough or sneeze on other people or surfaces, resulting in the flu attaching onto those areas. This therefore makes people more vulnerable to con- tracting the illness.
Therefore, in order to avoid contraction, it is recommended to frequently wash your hands, especially before you eat or touch your face. It’s also recommended to avoid touching or sharing bodily fluids with infected persons.
Also, each year a flu vaccine is offered to the public in order to prevent it. The flu vaccine is directed at the most common form of flu dispersing throughout the flu season. It can be administered in shot form, jet injector, or nasal spray, and is offered for free at many hospitals and pharmacies.
Another illness that is prevalent during the winter season is the norovirus. The norovirus is commonly known as the “stomach flu,” despite being unrelated to seasonal influenza, because the illness causes severe stomach or side pain due to inflammation.
Since the virus can be transmitted through contaminated food or water, touching contaminated surfaces, or being exposed to someone affected by norovirus, it contributes to 19-21 millions illnesses each year, according to the CDC.
Prevention methods of the norovirus are similar to the flu as people are encouraged to frequently wash their hands and avoid surfaces that have been used by a contaminated person.
The last illness that increases in persistence in the winter season is asthma. Asthma is a respiratory il ness in which the lungs have difficulty breathing during spasms, or attacks, caused by certain triggers. The triggers for asthma depend on the person. In winter, the cold weather can irritate the lungs and therefore induce asthmatic episodes for asthma sufferers.
Therefore, asthma sufferers are encouraged to bundle up, especially around the face and head, when going outside.
Ill health plagues everyone. However, with guidance and awareness about common sick bugs, perhaps this will be Indian Trail’s healthiest winter yet.