How Long Is The Flu Contagious 2018

when is it safe to go back to work after cold or flu?

You've finally kicked the worst of that influenza bug, but y'all still feel tired and unable to shake a lingering cough. You lot don't want to get anyone else sick, but deadlines are looming and your co-workers are counting on you.

When is it OK to return to piece of work?

Dr. William C. Wilson, UCI Health chief medical officeholder, and Dr. Susan S. Huang, medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention, offer these tips:

No fever for 24 hours — without fever-reducing medications
No vomiting or diarrhea for at least 24 hours
Coughing or sneezing should exist reduced and intermittent

For example, they say, if yous are ill on Sunday only your symptoms accept gone away by Sun evening, you may return to work at the earliest on Tuesday.

That can exist a tough pill to eat, so to speak, when there are demands at work.

Risks of returning to piece of work too presently

"There's a caste of mutual sense involved, but also in that location are variables such as the gamble of being taken to task for missing too many work days," says UCI Health family unit medicine practitioner Dr. Robert Doomun of UCI Health — Yorba Linda.

"You lot likewise take to realize that if you lot go dorsum besides early, you're probably going to relapse."

Fifty-fifty worse, he adds, yous might crusade other people to go sick, too.

Making the right decision will depend on your free energy level, your symptoms and your illness.

The nigh common workplace illnesses tend to be respiratory ailments such as colds and flu.

Gastrointestinal viruses, or "breadbasket influenza," come up in a close second during the winter season, says Doomun. Each has its own contagious period in which the sick person can spread sickness to others.

How long will you be contagious?

For virtually flu viruses, that window is about a week, starting from a day before your symptoms announced, to six or seven days afterward.

For colds, even people who are feeling better can spread the virus to others for upwards to iii weeks. If your breadbasket problems was caused by a rotavirus, yous can spread it to others fifty-fifty before you develop symptoms — and up to two weeks afterwards you've recovered.

"You could feel perfect and still be shedding virus," says Doomun. "But you can significantly reduce the risk of beingness contagious by waiting to render until yous've gone 24 to 36 hours without a fever with no medicines on board. Meaning, no fever-reducing medication such as Aleve or Tylenol."

For gastrointestinal illnesses, you should look until you are symptom-free — no airsickness or diarrhea — for at least 24 hours.

Cheque your energy

Some other good dominion of thumb, he says, is to judge your energy level and symptom severity. If you take at to the lowest degree 90 percent of your energy dorsum and your overall symptoms have decreased past 75 per centum, yous are probably safe to render to work.

The reverse is also true: if you can barely elevate yourself out of bed and y'all have a nasty cough or other symptoms, yous probably should remain home until you feel meliorate.

If you push yourself to return to work besides soon, you'll likely delay your healing process, perform poorly and chance spreading illness throughout the workplace.

"Then two, three or fifty-fifty five more people will be out sick, which will severely touch the overall job site performance and productivity," Doomun says.

Tips for returning to work after illness

When you do return, recall:

Launder your hands ofttimes and sanitize any surfaces such as estimator keyboards and telephone handsets and receivers.
Protect your coworkers by fugitive those with weakened allowed systems.
If you are still coughing or sneezing, wear a medical mask to forestall the spread of virus-filled aerosol.
Sneeze or cough into a tissue or into the curve of your elbow — non your paw — to keep aerosol from spreading.
Ease back into your piece of work pace to allow your body to recover fully and to prevent yourself from relapsing dorsum into affliction.