Immune System Disease - Care and Precautions towards Immune System Diseases

Precautions for vulnerable people

• Get vaccinated against the flu and pneumonia. But don't get vaccinated against chicken pox, smallpox, measles, mumps, or rubella. Unlike the flu and pneumonia vaccines, those vaccines contain live viruses that can overwhelm weakened defenses.
• Practice scrupulous dental hygiene to ward off periodontal infections.
• Cook meat, fish, and eggs thoroughly to kill the bacteria that can lurk in food.
• Consider installing a water filter to extract parasites from your water.
• Apply insect repellent assiduously when outdoors, especially in the woods, to ward off infection with West Nile and Lyme diseases.
• Be especially alert to the appearance of any new symptoms, including common ones like back pain or a rash, since that could signal an underlying and potentially dangerous infection.
• Minimize hospital visits, since germs are especially plentiful and virulent there. If you're hospitalized, insist that hospital staff follow the proper precautions to prevent the spread of infection.
• Consider donating your own blood before any surgery that may require a blood transfusion, to eliminate the possibility of a blood-borne infection.
• Ask whether you should take antibiotics before undergoing periodontal work and certain major operations, notably hysterectomy and cardiac, colorectal, or joint replacement surgery.