What You Can Do The best single preventive measure you can take against infection is to wash your hands often and well. Also keep the following guidelines in mind:
• Stay away from people with colds or the flu.
• Avoid intimate contact with people who have open sores such as cold sores or other viral infections.
• Avoid enclosed public areas where there is little ventilation, such as airplanes, theaters and shopping malls.
• Cut your nails carefully to avoid small nicks.
• Shave with an electric razor rather than a blade.
• Use gloves for protection when doing physical work that might damage the skin.
• Avoid dental work or cleaning if you are taking chemotherapy or if your white cell or platelet counts are low
(less than 3,000 WBC or less than 100,000 platelets).
• Avoid raw vegetables and fruit that can't be peeled by someone else.
• Avoid lettuce completely when the white cell count is very low.
• Don't eat undercooked meat and poultry.
• Avoid constipation, using a stool softener if necessary. The act of straining can cause small tears in the anus
and the lining of the intestine. This is dangerous when the white blood cell count is low.
• Avoid rectal thermometers and any other manipulation of the anus or rectum.
• Don't clean cat litter boxes or bird cages. Avoid all contact with animal stool and urine.
• Don't garden. It doesn't make sense to "play in the dirt." For this reason, plants (except plastic or silk ones) are
usually kept out of patients' hospital rooms when the white cell count is very low.
