According to new UK research, more than a third of people with the flu don’t have obvious symptoms. That means there may be more people ready to get you sick than you realize! It also means that the flu rate is much, much higher than reported.
Researchers took blood samples to determine whether study participants had the flu. They found that less than 2 in 5 with symptoms visited the doctor (and not all were diagnosed with the flu), and there was a whole other group—more than 3 in 4 people carrying the flu virus—who didn’t have symptoms.
Previously, an American study found that 90% or so of people who are obviously sick still went to work. Add in all the people not obviously sick, and you can see how we get bad flu seasons like we had this year!
Luckily, sneezing and coughing are the best ways to spread the flu. So without symptoms, infected people aren’t as contagious (although the flu is airborne, so it’s just less—close quarters or germ sharing would of course spread it).
And just because I’ve seen some confusion lately: OTC medicines that treat cold and flu symptoms—suppressing fever, cough, etc., aren’t making you less contagious, they actually can make you more likely to spread illness since you feel well enough to go out even though you aren’t. If you have a fever (or would have one but took medicine)Â then you’re contagious. For some illnesses, you can be contagious for a couple of days post-fever.
If you want to support your immune system so you get better, and not just hide symptoms, try colloidal silver. You can even use it to rinse your sinuses and support your immune system and fight symptoms simultaneously.
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