Tuesday, April 28, 2009

"Why don't we do it in our sleeves?"

I feel an enormous amount of compassion for the sick people in my exam room. But my fountain of understanding abruptly runs dry when some infectious chucklehead lets loose an unrestrained cough or sneeze as we sit together in that tiny space.

So please, one and all, as we pass through this scary, fluish time in close quarters, check out this video . Give your family, your co-workers, and your doctor a break!

7 comments:

Michael Ditto said...

I think this video says it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKiQA5e-fPg

(Minus the flu shot part given the current swine flu information).

Reality Man said...

Excellent. I have often wondered about 1)people who offer up their coughs and sneezes like gifts and 2) the faux gentility of having the goop end up first in your hand, and then all over the place. I know that the sleeve cough has long been practiced by such people as checkers in supermarkets. But I think the ultimate in politeness is not going out in public if you are coughing and sneezing something communicable.

Dr S said...

Yes! Oh goodness, the number of times I've had to ask people to put their hands in front of their mouths, or not breathe in my face when I'm listening to their chests! At least you don't have to deal with the constant threat of TB, multiple drug resistance TB, or Extremely drug resistant TB. My colleague contracted MDR from one of her patients and ended up having a lobectomy!

Anonymous said...

I love this video. I always knew that sneezing/coughing into a sleeve was recommended, but never knew that the nasty bugs would die a slow painful death on my shirtsleeve. That's very satisfying information!

Ruth said...

Great video. I emailed the link along. I sneeze a lot in the spring so maybe I should design some of those removable sleeves for myself.

health navigation said...

Great Video and thanks for health advise. :) G

Mauigirl said...

Love the video!