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One of the best ways to prevent disease is to keep clean. Wash your hands.
Infectious Disease
In the past:
Tompkins County has experienced small-scale disease outbreaks in the recent past. While none were so wide-spread that they gained major attention, there was a recent outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in the area, as well as some cases of tuberculosis (TB). Most common are cold or flu outbreaks.
There have been no confirmed cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Tompkins County.
Risk to Tompkins County residents:
Tompkins County is at about the same risk level as most of the country. An exception would be our nursing homes, which tend to have a higher overall risk than normal due to the close-quarters nature of the housing (the same reason why colds spread so quickly in public schools).
Diseases can be spread in one of several ways:
- Direct Contact: usually when infected blood or other body fluids from one person enter another person's body. For instance, if you have a cut on your hand and touch blood from someone who is bleeding, diseases in that person's blood may enter your body.
- Indirect Contact: when infected blood or other body fluids get onto an object, and from there enter another person's body. For instance, if a person with mononucleosis (commonly called "mono") drinks from a glass, infected saliva will remain on the glass. If a healthy person then drinks from the same glass without washing it, the infected saliva can enter the healthy person's body, infecting that person as well.
- Airborne: a disease that can survive while floating through air. Active tuberculosis (TB) can be passed in this way. If a person with active TB coughs out the TB bacteria, and a healthy person breathes them in, that person can become infected as well.
- Vector: a disease that is carried by another organism. For instance, the infamous bubonic plague (also called the "Black Death") was probably spread between humans by fleas. West Nile Virus is a more contemporary example, spread by mosquitoes.
- Presence: the germs must be there.
- Quantity: there must be enough of the germs there to overwhelm your immune system.
- Entry site: the germs must pass through a correct entry site into your body (for instance, HIV/AIDS can't get into your body through kissing; it has to get in through sex or direct blood contact).
- Susceptible: you must be susceptible to the disease (for instance, if you've been vaccinated against measles, you are no longer susceptible to the disease).
How to prepare:
There's a lot of common advice out there to prevent getting sick. Most of it's even true:
- Get plenty of rest. Most doctors recommend at least 8 hours of sleep each night.
- Eat right.
- Drink plenty of fluids.
- Exercise.
- Wash your hands! Some pointers:
- Soap up, and rub your hands together vigorously for at least 15 seconds. Here's a hint: that's about as long as it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" two times.
- Use lotion, especially in the winter, to prevent your skin from cracking. Cracks in your skin can provide a way for diseases to enter your body.
- Instant "hand sanitizer" rubs are a good temporary solution, but if you use one, you should still wash your hands at the next opportunity you get!
- See your doctor regularly.
- Know germs. If you know how they operate, you'll be better able to avoid them.
- Use "personal protective equipment" like latex gloves or goggles. There are alternatives to latex, if you are allergic.
- A basic rule to remember when dealing with blood and body fluids: if it ain't yours, don't touch it!
Additional Resources
- Web MD. An online reference about disease, symptoms, and treatments. NOTE: this site is not designed to substitute for a doctor's visit. If you're sick, go to the doctor.
- The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An excellent source of information on diseases.
- Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca. Tompkins County's main hospital facility, located on rte. 96, between Ithaca and Trumansburg.
- Tompkins County Health Department.