I have often wondered how long one is contagious when they get sick. Some have told me that if you can get past the first 2 days and have not gotten sick from someone else, you are safe.
Does anyone have a site that explains this in more detail. For example, when a family member gets ill, how long do I have to hold out for before I know I have passed the time and wont be picking up any illness from them.
I imagine different types of illness are different, such as viral vs. bacterial, how can you tell the difference of one versus the other?
Are there any precautions I can take to prevent from getting ill from someone else. Specifically I am thinking it would not be a good idea to take a shower directly after a ill person has taken one, especially with all the warm vapors.
Not really talking about diseases here, more the flu and cold and basic family sicknesses.
I’m not really sure what you mean by family sicknesses. With the exception of STDs all diseases are family sicknesses.
If we just restrict ourselves to influenza and the common cold things might get a little clearer, or it might not. While influenza is a specific group of viruses a cold can be caused by a range of viruses, but the symptoms are so minor that the exact cause si almost never determined. To complicate matters even more, colds are commonly triggered by a virus but progress to later opportunistic bacterial infections. It is quite possible to contract the virus but be immune to secondary infection.
There is no specified time period for infection from any specific source. Even with airborne diseases if you are lucky and in good health you could go months in close contact with infected persons and never contract the disease. Then when your immune system is suppressed, or just through plain bad luck, you can contract the disease. With diseases transmitted through intermediate contact or similar the results are even less predictable. Sorry, but there’s no real way to tell.
If we expand the definition beyond cold and ‘flus to other common ailment such as cold sores and upset stomachs it becomes even less clear. If a person is infected with, for example, herpes they will be contagious forever. Herpes is never really ‘cured’. The virus lurks in the nervous and will break out form time to time, making the carrier contagious.
On the other hand if a person has chickenpox, and you have already contracted the disease then they will never be contagious to you, during the first two days or the first two minutes.
The distinction isn’t based upon whether the disease is vital or bacterial. Although in general bacterial diseases are more readily eliminated this isn’t always the case, as the example of typhoid Mary demonstrates. Although typhoid is a bacterial disease, Mary remained infectious from the time she contracted the disease until she dies many years later.
There are few precautions you can take. Washing your hands, particular before eating or preparing food, is one of the biggies.
Showers aren’t a big issue except with tinea. In general either the virus can survive outside the body or it can’t. Since they aren’t alive viruses don’t need water when away from the host.