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Intro Images:
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What behaviors help protect against a cold or flu?
This is one of fifteen interactive Link Station activities. Try it out in the Hall of Human Life, then view and compare your data here. Did you get the flu? In this activity, you will answer a few questions about whether or not you had flu like symptoms in the last two weeks. Your data will help researchers learn more about the rate of infection for the flu in the United States.
Overview
This overview shows how many Museum visitors had or did not have flu-like symptoms. Each dot represents a visitor. How did habits such as using hand sanitizer or getting the flu shot influence the spread of the flu? The graph shows the results of 150 Museum visitors.
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Spreading it around
Infections such as influenza (the flu) spread when droplets from a cough or sneeze move through the air and enter directly into another person’s mouth or nose, or land on surfaces that are later touched. The microbes in these droplets can live on surfaces for two hours and can spread from person to person. Infections in your body are caused by bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. When another organism feeds in or on you, multiplies, and adversely affects your health, you have an infection.
Reporting in
Preventing the spread of an infection like the flu depends on a number of factors, like getting vaccinated, washing your hands often, avoiding close social contact with sick people, and practicing good health habits. By reporting our behaviors when we are healthy or sick, we can learn how we play a role in how infections spread.