The Olympic Games in London attracts huge crowds of visitors from all
around the world, who carry a world-class array of germs with them.
Gregory Poland, M.D., an expert for infectious disease from the Mayo Clinic offers advice on how people can protect themselves against illness avoiding illness in mass gatherings, such as the Olympics, professional sports games, conventions, arena concert or other major events.
Dr. Poland, the Mary Lowell Leary Professor of Medicine and director of the Vaccine Research Group at Mayo Clinic says:
The risk of infection automatically increases at mass gatherings, especially when these gatherings involve people from all over the world, as different countries may have different immunization programs and do not always have the same standards of personal cleanliness or food safety, he adds.
Large crowds also increase the risk of respiratory disease like tuberculosis, but also vermin like head lice and bedbugs, food-related illness, such as E. coli and salmonella, and hepatitis A and traveler's diarrhea, as well as skin conditions like athlete's foot and staph infections.
To lower the risk of infection, Dr. Poland offers the following advice:
Make sure your vaccines are up to date! The most important are vaccines for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), seasonal flu shot and a relatively new vaccine called Tdap to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (whooping cough), which is particularly important as epidemics of whooping cough are occurring in the U.S. and the rest of the world, whilst the UK and other parts of Europe also recently had measles outbreaks.
Always wash your hands! Use soap and hot water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, particularly before leaving a restroom, touching your face or eating. Wash your hands for about 20 seconds, which is about the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday." In public restrooms, use a paper towel to turn off the water tap and to use the door handle for opening the door when you leave, as both water taps and water taps house multitudes of germs.
Be careful what you eat! Do not eat food that is not cooked well, boiled or peeled and select food that requires little handling when prepared. Make sure hot food is served hot and cold food is served cold, and check that dishes and utensils are clean.
Protect your feet! Wear swim shoes or swim socks when using public showers, pools or wet areas to protect against athlete's foot and other fungus.
Avoid public pools! Swimming pools, hot tubs or whirlpools are not always properly maintained and it is often difficult to tell whether a hot tub or whirlpool is sanitary. If not, there is a risk of bacterial, skin and pulmonary infections.
Do not smoke! Smoking increases the chances of contracting Legionnaires' disease when exposed to the legionella bacteria, and it can also make you more susceptible to general respiratory diseases.
Do not try on hats or baseball caps! To minimize the risk of getting head lice, seal headwear in a plastic bag to bring your purchase home and then either freeze it for several days or wash before wearing.
Check your beds! Before you unpack, look for bedbugs and only place your luggage on wooden surfaces or in the bathtub, never on the floor, bed, chair or couch until you are sure that there are no unwanted visitors lurking.
Look after your health! Move away or ask to be reseated if someone near you is obviously ill. If a server's hands touch your food or the rim of your glass or cup, don't be embarrassed or hesitant to ask for a new serving or eat somewhere else. If you have recently been at mass gatherings like the Olympics and don't feel well, do not hesitate to seek medical attention.
Dr. Poland stresses:
He concludes saying that it is important to follow the advice to protect yourself. However, there is no need to take precautions to the extreme like wearing a facemask in public unless you are ill or there is a known epidemic.
Gregory Poland, M.D., an expert for infectious disease from the Mayo Clinic offers advice on how people can protect themselves against illness avoiding illness in mass gatherings, such as the Olympics, professional sports games, conventions, arena concert or other major events.
Dr. Poland, the Mary Lowell Leary Professor of Medicine and director of the Vaccine Research Group at Mayo Clinic says:
"The big ones that we're worried about in terms of the Olympics are things that are currently epidemic in certain parts of the world, including the U.S. Those would include pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, and of course, when you have people coming from the Southern Hemisphere, this is their influenza season."
The risk of infection automatically increases at mass gatherings, especially when these gatherings involve people from all over the world, as different countries may have different immunization programs and do not always have the same standards of personal cleanliness or food safety, he adds.
Large crowds also increase the risk of respiratory disease like tuberculosis, but also vermin like head lice and bedbugs, food-related illness, such as E. coli and salmonella, and hepatitis A and traveler's diarrhea, as well as skin conditions like athlete's foot and staph infections.
To lower the risk of infection, Dr. Poland offers the following advice:
Make sure your vaccines are up to date! The most important are vaccines for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), seasonal flu shot and a relatively new vaccine called Tdap to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (whooping cough), which is particularly important as epidemics of whooping cough are occurring in the U.S. and the rest of the world, whilst the UK and other parts of Europe also recently had measles outbreaks.
Always wash your hands! Use soap and hot water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, particularly before leaving a restroom, touching your face or eating. Wash your hands for about 20 seconds, which is about the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday." In public restrooms, use a paper towel to turn off the water tap and to use the door handle for opening the door when you leave, as both water taps and water taps house multitudes of germs.
Be careful what you eat! Do not eat food that is not cooked well, boiled or peeled and select food that requires little handling when prepared. Make sure hot food is served hot and cold food is served cold, and check that dishes and utensils are clean.
Protect your feet! Wear swim shoes or swim socks when using public showers, pools or wet areas to protect against athlete's foot and other fungus.
Avoid public pools! Swimming pools, hot tubs or whirlpools are not always properly maintained and it is often difficult to tell whether a hot tub or whirlpool is sanitary. If not, there is a risk of bacterial, skin and pulmonary infections.
Do not smoke! Smoking increases the chances of contracting Legionnaires' disease when exposed to the legionella bacteria, and it can also make you more susceptible to general respiratory diseases.
Do not try on hats or baseball caps! To minimize the risk of getting head lice, seal headwear in a plastic bag to bring your purchase home and then either freeze it for several days or wash before wearing.
Check your beds! Before you unpack, look for bedbugs and only place your luggage on wooden surfaces or in the bathtub, never on the floor, bed, chair or couch until you are sure that there are no unwanted visitors lurking.
Look after your health! Move away or ask to be reseated if someone near you is obviously ill. If a server's hands touch your food or the rim of your glass or cup, don't be embarrassed or hesitant to ask for a new serving or eat somewhere else. If you have recently been at mass gatherings like the Olympics and don't feel well, do not hesitate to seek medical attention.
Dr. Poland stresses:
"If you do develop signs of illness, you need to be evaluated. You don't know if it's a simple virus, a complicated virus, bacteria, or even unfortunately, with this many people from around the world something of greater concern such as tuberculosis."
He concludes saying that it is important to follow the advice to protect yourself. However, there is no need to take precautions to the extreme like wearing a facemask in public unless you are ill or there is a known epidemic.
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