Vastly Limiting Social Contact Could Stop Flu Spread
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iStock/Thinkstock(DAVIS, Calif.) — Keeping your distance from others could be the best way to prevent spreading the flu, based on how Mexico City handled the swine flu epidemic in April 2009.
At the time, government officials closed schools, cancelled major events and told residents of Mexico City to stay home.
As a result, TV viewing exploded by 20 percent during the first week that the stringent new health policy was enacted. And apparently, it kept the flu from spreading.
Michael Springborn, an economist at the University of California, Davis, says the “spread of the virus was reduced by people’s behavioral response of distancing themselves from each other.”
In the five weeks before things got back to normal, the flu stabilized and then the number of cases dropped off. It was believed that had Mexico City not asked people to limit their social contact, cases of the flu would have quadrupled over the same amount of time.
Meanwhile, it was also noted that TV viewing returned to normal levels by the second week, which suggests people found other things to do when they were cooped up in their homes.
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