Schools will often close down if the flu hits ; even during a normal flu season, if a school hits a critical mass of absenteeism (10% is often enough), they will close the school for a week. That will be long enough to let everyone who has the flu get over it so it doesn’t spread any further.

For schools, sports can be an issue; sick players are going to be in close proximity to healthy teammates and foes alike. When the flu hit the University of Florida’s football team, ill players, including star quarterback Tim Tebow, flew to their game at Kentucky in separate planes from their healthy teammates.

Getting individuals to stay home when they are sick is an important way to stop the flu from running through a workplace or school. People often are given kudos for toughing it out and coming to work walking-wounded, but not only will they be working at a reduced capacity, they run the risk of getting everyone else infected, possibly forcing the entire business to shut down.

For instance, the flu has hit the crew of the TV show Bones hard enough that producer Hart Hanson tweeted about having to stop production due to the large number of staff out with the flu. Had some of those sick workers stayed home rather than shared their blessings with their co-workers, the show might have gone on.

To this point, we have not seen the radical steps that Mexico did of closing all restaurants and bars during the height of their H1N1 scare. With some 20-20 hindsight, we know that such measures were likely overkill. H1N1 is not as lethal as some viruses of the recent past like the bird flu or SARS ; it seems to be more contagious than other flu but not any more lethal. However, the Mexicans didn’t know that when things first took off and they erred on the side of caution.

Thus, officials have to work on being cautious without being labeled The Boy Who Cried Swine Flu ; finding a workable middle ground is a work in process.

Allergy is when our body react to harmless intruders, such as pollen, as if it was an enemy. The body produces an antibody which attacks the intruder and binds with him. Our body releases a chemical into the blood stream called Histamine. This substance causes most of the symptoms we call allergy.

There are many kinds of allergies; seasonal allergies that are connected to pollen, dander allergy connected to reactions to animals like cats and dogs, food allergies and insect sting allergies.

When the symptoms are mild, the allergy goes almost unnoticed. Moderate allergy is when you feel like you have a cold or a flu. Severe allergies can be life threatening. Most symptoms of the mild allergy will go away after the source of the allergy is removed. In sever allergies the reaction of the body already started and only an antidote will stop the symptoms.

Most people are aware what triggers their allergic reaction and try to avoid it. The allergic reaction is unique to the person. A plant that causes watery eyes and itchy nose in one will not have the same affect on another.

There are a few way to fight allergic reaction. The abundance of over the counter medicines is a testament that many people suffer from allergies and that the drugs help lessen the affect. Another treatment is monthly shots that eliminate the necessity of the daily drug.

Yet another way to fight the allergy is to find out what causes it, if the source is not obvious. This is done by injecting small amounts of allergy causing material into the body and seeing to which one of those you are allergic. It is a lengthy process that sometimes requires a hundred shots to be administered before you find the one that triggers an inflammation. After that you can avoid the allergy causing element, or, and this is a new method, expose the body to small amounts of the allergen for a period of time until your body develops tolerance to substance.