"facemask, hand sanitizer and placemats,"

And if you try to get all thos through security? Hellloooo body cavity search!

If you think you're gonna get sick, then you will. The best medicine is a positive mentality. And I'm no hippie/freak, I just travel on about 60 flights each year and have realized that if you subject yourself to believing that something bad will happen, then it will. It wasn't that long ago when there were no such things as sewers, water filters, and antibiotics and yet people lived through it. Germs here and there do cause problems, but not nearly as much if you take care of yourself first.

While I agree that your immune system can handle quite a bit, that doesn't mean you need to tempt fate.

I get a bunch of those little blue sanitizing wipe packs from the travel/dollar section at CVS or Target. And wipe down hand rests and the seat-back tray and just about anything else that occurs to me during travel. They're pretty easy to get through TSA screening.

I like making sure I drink some OJ the morning I travel, too - extra Vitamin C and all that jazz.

Also - if you're a frequent traveler, join one of those VIP clubs. Since my husband joined the NWA WorldClub, he doesn't seem to get as many colds when he travels. I think it's because the facilities are cleaned more often and generally laid out in a way that makes things cleaner (bigger toilet stalls, motion activated sinks, soap and towels, etc.)

And as for the power of positive thinking and keeping healthy....

Sure, being healthy and positive are good for you. But they aren't always going to help you when, say, some random person who stands or sits next to you in a pretty confined space and then hacks up all sorts of nasty germs without attempting to cover his/her mouth?

Or noroviruses - for those of us unlucky enough to have caught them, you can be as hygienic and and careful and as positive as you like, but they are super-transmissible, sometimes up to 2 weeks after recovery. My grandmother picked one up a few years ago on a plane when coming to visit us for Christmas and it went through our entire family like wildfire, since she's a big fan of giving everyone hugs and big, wet kisses upon her arrival.

Sometimes microbiology just wins, positive thinking be damned. I guess you can look on the bright side and say it's a few days out of the office... ;)

These are the wipes I'm talking about by the way...they come in travel packs of 20.

http://a1061.g.akamai.net/7/1061/5412/home/www.walgreens.com/dbimagecache/197995.jpg

Alternatively, you can get Alcohol prep pads as well from your drug store of choice...they just won't smell as nice as the ones above ;)

Besides the obvious (frequent handwashing, hand sanitizer, keep your hands out of your mouth) - I think there is more we can do to protect others than ourselves.

-Put the used tissue in the trash, not the seat pocket
-Hand sanitize your own hands after you cough/sneeze in them
-Cover your mouth
-Take cold/cough medicine before boarding

I never wear shorts on a plane (fun trips) and try to avoid skirts unless they are longer. I can't even imagine the yuck on the seats. I also have seat belt issues. Just touching that cold clasp and the webbed belt grosses me out.

I transfer a bunch of Clorox wipes from their cannister to a ziploc bag. I wipe down our seatbelts, armrests and tray tables before and after the flight. Before to get the built up muck off the surfaces and after to removes the sticky kid residue for the next flier.

Freq Flier, I agree with you. Have a little consideration for others, too! You're always going to protect yourself, but you're doing a good thing by thinking of others too, especially if you're under the weather. I can't tell you how many times I've been coughed on, sneezed on, etc, by my seat-mate. It's just disgusting.

Parents, this means you have to watch your kids too - they don't always know to cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. Don't turn a blind eye to that, I'm begging you :)

>>It wasn't that long ago when there were no such things as sewers, water filters, and antibiotics and yet people lived through it.>>

Well, humanity in general lived through it. But a lot of individuals died from simple infections, contaminated water, etc -- and still do today in third world countries where modern amenities are unavailable.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for thinking positively and I'm a believer in the mind-body connection -- but your cheery thoughts are being backstopped by an immune system that has pretty much seen it all. Just like schoolteachers tend to get sick a LOT the first year and then less so as their immune systems get armed against the array of bugs kids spread around, so frequent fliers often get sick less often once they've been road warriors for awhile.

One tip that didn't make it in the article -- after you've washed your hands, don't touch anything else in the lavatory with your bare hands and use a paper towel to open the latch.

"If you think you're gonna get sick, then you will." - Wow, and I hope you didn't mean it this way, but this is a really easy way to blame the victim. Like, gosh, if only all those poor people who live in bad sanitation thought better thoughts, they wouldn't die of cholera!

Why are the trash bags put away so fast at the end of a flight? I have often plopped down in my seat to find a landfill in my seatback pocket. I know that there will always be some trash, but can't we find room for a trash bag close to the door for whatever escapes the attendants as they whiz down the aisle?

I can clean with wipes, etc. but I cannot avoid the coughs of others. Our society needs constant reminders for people to cover their mouths! When coughing and sneezing for god's sake, and also when yawning would be nice!

When the restrictions about liquids & gels came down, I switched from a bottle of hand sanitizer (must be carried in that 1-quart Ziploc) to a tub of anti-bacterial wipes-- no liquids there! Available in scents from places like Bath & Body Works, available unscented as baby-type wipes and others.

To h3: Be nice. Everyone is entitled to their own comments.

I don't know what's so scary about a face mask. I'm going to go ahead and wear one. Once people get used to seeing them, it's no big deal.

There is something to being afraid of getting sick. Fear is stressful, even a small one. What I've started doing is stopping for a swim on my way home from the airport. Some fresh air and salt water offset all that bad air and sitting!
AB

One of the simplest and oldest ways to kill bacteria is with Silver, but it's making a high tech comeback in textiles. Relatively new in textiles, you can purchase a thin wicking towel that contains silver (www.discoverytrekking.com) to travel with, and it doubles as an airline blanket. It also protects from the sun, which seems to be a hot (no pun intended) topic in the news today. Several travel writers have done articles about what great towels these are,(recently the Chicago Tribune...Sailing Magazine...Vancouver Sun) but if carrying one onboard a flight, the silver will no only reflect heat back to your body, but the silver kills hundreds of germ/virus. Carrying a towel that wicks moisture, kills bacteria, doubles as a beach coverup or an evening wrap, and can also be slept on (hot flash anyone) to keep you dry is a pretty simple solution to helping fight germs when travelling.