Ha Choo! comes the sound from someone nearby. Even with a mild cold and flu season this year, just a reminder that it’s polite to stay at home while sick.
Germs are contagious. When people show up to work, church, and the grocery store or to exercise when they are sick, they infect those around them. Staying home will protect you too. While one’s immunity is low, you won’t be exposed to other germs.
Influenza or the flu is a severe respiratory virus that kills thousands each year, particularly the elderly or those with impaired immune function. Even healthy individuals can end up with bronchitis or pneumonia.
Hand washing is an important part of disease prevention as is avoiding those who are sick. But influenza can be transmitted through the air, so staying home is important.
Sure, some people might put up with someone while they’re ill, but they really don’t want them around.
It’s true one can’t always stay home from work. Sometimes there is an important deadline or something they’ve put in a file someplace that no one is going to be able to find.
Some employers don’t offer sick leave or employees are docked for being sick. That is just wrong, particularly in the health care industry or in restaurants or in day care, but this is  where this often occurs.
While you may not get too sick from influenza, those around you could die such as those who are on chemotherapy. The flu shot isn’t just for the person getting it. It is also for those near them.
If someone has no sick time available, maybe it would be possible to switch shifts with a co-worker or work from home or ask to change to a job that day that doesn’t have customer contact.
Whooping cough, which is a highly contagious respiratory illness, can cause severe illness or death in infants or the elderly  has been in the news lately. It is spread through the air.
If you come in sick, there’s a good chance your co-workers and customers will get sick, too — and in some cases, pass on an illness can cause potentially life-threatening situations.
Today, Typhoid Mary is a generic term for anyone who spreads a disease. But there was a real Typhoid Mary who infected at least 51 people with that disease, resulting in three deaths. She was healthy.
So if you have a sore throat, muscle aches and fever, it’s a good idea to stay at home and catch up on rest. Others will say “thank you.”