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Productivity’s Public Enemy No. 1 will cost country 100 million lost work days, 32 million school days and $10.4B in hospitalizations this year Influenza is a freight train that breaks for no one, especially wallets. The high cost of the flu is as miserable as the sickly hurt its puts on millions of Americans each […]

Hand Sanitizer No One-Hit Disinfectant Wonder The world’s No. 1 germ killer isn’t a one-hit wonder or a one-trick pony. Hand sanitizer is also a Swiss Army Knife in a bottle, a versatile cleansing agent that has more uses than Baskin Robbins has flavors. Killing 99 percent of all germs on contact is just the […]

Death, taxes and the flu. If there’s one certainty about Iowa winters, it’s that influenza is an ever-present threat we have to keep our guard up against, even during the mildest of Hawkeye State winters. But despite all the information available on the realities of the flu, there still many myths, old wive’s tales and […]

Influenza is in the air, lying in plain sight in all the coughs, sneezes and runny noses of our family members, coworkers, neighbors and friends. And after a quiet start, the 2018-19 flu season has turned fierce and deadly in Iowa as influenza settles like a bad storm over the Hawkeye State. However, how bad […]

The flu, as we all know too well, takes no mercy on its victims. And influenza is hardest on its most vulnerable targets: infants and toddlers. It’s a hard, cold, fact of life that your baby will get a cold at some point of this winter’s ruthless cold and flu season. After all, babies love […]

The world is full of great rivalries: The Chicago Bears vs. the Green Bay Packers, Apollo Creed vs. Rocky Balboa, Pepsi vs. Coke, Democrats vs. Republicans, Chevy trucks vs. Ford trucks, Marvel vs. DC Comics. In the germ-fighting game, the No. 1 feud going today is the performance battle between antibacterial and antimicrobial substances. These […]

Pediatrics’ 8-month analysis of 911 toddlers finds kids using hand sanitizer miss fewer days of school, have fewer respiratory infections Kids are adorable, but as every parent can testify, they are also adorable germ machines. Kids collect sickly germs and bacteria like Microsoft collects cash: stockpiling them in factors of ten. They trade germs with […]

Experts urge ‘everyone’ to get vaccinated by Halloween as potentially nasty influenza weather looms Some events should never be green lit for a sequel, namely, the 2017-18 U.S. cold and flu season. One of the worst seasons in recent memory produced epidemic levels of influenza or pneumonia for 16 consecutive weeks, hospitalized more than 700,000 […]

It’s August, the dog days of summer, and millions of American kids coast to coast are coming down with bad cases of BTSB: Back To School Germs. Unfortunately, America’s students aren’t the only ones headed back to class. Alas, germ class is back in session. When America’s students return to school this month, they will […]

WHO and FDA strengthen vaccine for 2018-19 season to target season’s No. 1 threat: H3N2 Even a flu vaccine can get the flu. Overwhelmed by an unexpected surge by H3N2 strains, the flu shot wasn’t itself last season. With the disturbing numbers on the 2017-18 cold and flu season in front of them, the World […]