WHy are we the worst?

[cpeuf1]

Saluslibrorum, I think you could have a very good point here. Yeah, a lot of people appear clean here, but it may just be appearance. Another problem I can see happening also is the fact that when you work it is not very good to be off sick. Rather than take a couple of days off to clear even the most simple cold, people keep on going, so they get sick longer and they pass it on to anybody they get in contact with. If you are a bit run down yourself, you are bond to get it. The attitude there does not lay necessarily with the employees but with the bosses who think no matter what you should be at work, that is what you are paid for... So this winter if you hear about entire offices being "wiped out", I bet this is where you will find your answer to the problem. Businesses are very short sighted as far as the health of their staff and their own health is concerned.

[SalusLibrorum]

Making people go into work when they're ill is not a good idea, but when it comes down to it, the actual spread is mostly down to the personal hygiene of the people themselves, especially once the acute symptoms have died down.

Why do people not wash their hands after using the toilet? It's pretty basic stuff, and yet they seem unable to, despite being bombarded by messages from birth about washing their hands. Study after study shows that a sizeable proportion of Brits do not wash their hands, and a bigger chunk do it so briefly as to be ineffective. It's pathetic.

No wonder we've had epidemics of norovirus (almost every winter recently), colds and now flu.

I spent 5 years of my life trying to persuade people in the food industry that hygiene and hand washing is important, and a sizeable proportion of them had the same attitude (although not to my face, because, well, I could prosecute them) which was obvious from watching them and their staff at work. If those with a vested interest like food workers behave like that, what hope is there for the rest?

[cpeuf1]

Now who is trying to blur the figures......?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8163930.stm