What's new? 'S not much.

It's that time of year again: cold and flu season! Here are two articles from the New York Times on the subject of colds, and, especially mucous!

Don't let your parents read this first one. It's about whether or not to send kids with colds to school.

I do remember getting several calls from day-care directors or school nurses to inform me that although my child seemed happy and active, there was in fact a lurking fever — and I remember biting back the question, what kind of zealot takes the temperature of a happy, active child?

But of course, they were worrying about the other children. And that is a fair question with any child who is borderline sick: who is infectious, what’s the risk, and is there anything we can do to reduce it?

Doctors, as a group, are big believers in sending children to school. Every doctor I’ve talked to is more concerned about children unnecessarily missing school than about their posing an infection risk to their classmates.

But what about having to sit in a class next to Typhoid Mary? Shouldn't we make them stay home?

Children with viral infections can be infectious before they show symptoms, as well as after their symptoms clear up. On the other hand, some children with R.S.V. can cough for weeks, not because there are still viral particles but because the virus has affected the lining of their lungs.

So you can have an asymptomatic child who is shedding virus, a coughing child who is no longer shedding virus, and infection by viral particles that lurk on surfaces and objects. “It’s not practical to keep everybody out who’s shedding virus — that’s everybody all winter long,” said Dr. Robert Tolan, chief of the division of allergy, immunology and infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J.

So what can we do to keep from getting sick. What my wife, an infection control practioner, has for years been telling everyone who will listen:

“The only thing we can really show well in infection control is hand washing,” Dr. Hall said. “Even for those viruses that are spread by aerosol” — through the air.

Second article -- shocking news! You shouldn't be blowing your nose, but if feel you must, do it one nostril at a time!

[Warning: do not click on this link. I'm warning you. (It just about made me sick. I couldn't watch the whole thing.)]