The hazards of this hostile continent include ice, fire, wind and whiteout. And then there’s the Crud.
A debilitating ailment that can attack the nose, the throat, the chest or the gut, the Crud is a force to be reckoned with, especially for the highly skilled, highly pressured, highly motivated workers at McMurdo Station, the biggest U.S. science center in Antarctica.
The garden-variety McMurdo Crud is “like what you’d call a cold back in the United States,” said Dr. Harry Owens, the lead physician at the base hospital.
Symptoms include stuffy nose, aching sinuses and ears and coughing.
The problem is workers in Antarctica, often under pressure to accomplish much in a short stay, are reluctant to do what’s needed to keep the Crud from infecting the entire population of 3000 or so: stay in bed, drink lots of fluids and wash hands before every meal and after every bathroom visit, Owens said.
So notices about the Crud are everywhere, and underlined in briefings for every new visitor. Hand-washing stations are in almost every hallway. For those who still forget to wash, jugs of waterless hand-sanitizing liquid are in the hallway leading to the main cafeteria.
Sometimes — just sometimes — I think being a hermit is the right idea. You’re less likely to get sick if you can avoid people altogether.
People at the South Pole, confined closely together, catch colds. What an incredibly insightful factoid.
How can we blame the Bush Administration?
Oh, I know! Lack of universal health care.
This brought to mind a horrible respiratory infection that was going around the Columbus area a few years ago. It would last for weeks to months without relenting, and it had a terrible tendency of coming back after a few days of rest seemed to have kicked it. I don’t know what possible connection there is, but the name that even the puzzled doctors started calling it after a month or so was the “Crud”. Interestingly, OSU hosts the Byrd Polar Research Center, and I wonder if this super-cold was spread from there. It would have been nice if they had told the doctors about this back then, as they were fully puzzled as to why their patients were not recovering from this cold, and many people went on to suffer from lung infections. Or, alternately, it may be that the name came out of the research group, and nothing else, but. . . At any rate, I had not heard of this Eideard, thanks for bringing it up.
How can we blame the Bush Administration?
Seek therapy immediately.
How can we blame the Bush Administration?
Better yet, how can we blame the Clinton Administration? Surely, it’s their fault.
Huh, I thought that Crud was just a metaphor, for any and all assorted and sundry upper respiratory ailments. I have one myself, because my oil furnace burped this weekend, with a lot of soot. Been coughing up black soot, but I fixed it, and I am okay now.
2,
This is a condition of airing out your home…
colds can and WILL infect a house.
the house has to be aired out, More people MORE often…If a cold gets into the house, It should be aired out at Least 1 time per week. I don’t care how cold it is outside…
turn the heat off, open the front and back, and Put the fans up, to hit Every room..
Iv seen New homes that were designed too tight, no draft.
when 1 kid had a cold, everyone got it, but it kept coming back, and coming back. they didn’t know what to do, and it was Racking everyone until they Just didn’t feel good at ALL.
that little bit of draft, refreshes the air, pretty well…But sometimes you need to OPEN the whole hose up. there could be a small pocket that isn’t being cleaned out, by the draft.
#2 and #5 great comments
Air out the house!? Are you out of your mind!? The hosts of the common cold are humans, and the cold itself is transmitted in repiratory droplets… sure these may end up on various household objects (from a sneeze or a cough) but freezing yourself to death will only weaken your own immune system, making you more susceptible to infection from the carrier sharing your home. If you want to avoid getting a cold, tell the carrier to shack up somewhere else until the symptoms are gone. Also, universal healthcare is probably the stupidest idea stinky hippies have endorsed to date. The only reason our medical system is a world leader is b/c there are incentives drawing the brightest minds to work in the field.
bah – Blame Canada
btw – doesnt Canada have Universal Healcare?
BLAME CANADA
7. YOU are a doctor ! Yikes. Great bedside manner, remind me not to get sick.
7-
we’re the world leader in health care? Uhm, you sure about that? Or more ‘America is #1!’ posturing I see so often?
As far as the ‘airing out the home’ idea, no one was saying leave the house wide open. But washing sheets, circulating the air, all of that is sound advice.
7,
you got the $60 to see a doctor, and Leave the bug in the house…Go for it. And it dont need to be COLD out side to catch a cold.
seal yourself up for a few hours discomfort, or a visit to the neihbors house, and you could be rid of it for the next 6 months, cheaply and it shouldnt reoccur..
We are the #1 nation of Pill poppers, and Forget about the Herbs nation. we forget whats has been done, for many years until someone RE PROVES what worked, works and STILL works.
#5,
“Airing out your house” will do absolutely nothing to prevent, retard, or alleviate common colds, flus, and other respiratory and rhino diseases. They are caused by viruses. Once a person has been infected by a virus, they develop an immunity to that virus strain and will never become sick with that specific strain again.
Bacteria on the other hand will keep returning. If one has an oral infection such as strep throat, then using the same toothbrush may bring the infection back.
Fresh air and cold rarely kills viruses or bacteria. At the best, they will go dormant until such time as favorable conditions again present themselves.
Airing out the house is a good idea…..my Grandparents always did it, even when snow was up to the roof…..and they never had colds or the flu. I suppose you could say that was because their houses were so damn cold, no one visited who had the bacteria or virus 🙂
13,
Thats right, and if you Live with another person or MORE, Each person adds his OWN little bit to that Virus, thats HOW it developes, and mutates….DUH..
didnt say COLD, i said freah air…A draft that refreshes the air in the hose, so you AINT snorting your own STINK.
unless you are one of those that DONT believe that you air inyour house is more poluted then the outside air, and Taht in winter, it becomes 10 times WORSE, because the door is shut and the windows closed.
All i want for Xmas is smarter fingers, that can type as fast as I think, and spell better
#16,
You do well with the fingers you have. I respect and enjoy the fingers you use now my friend.
Which leads me to an interesting question. If friends don’t let friends drive drunk, do cyber friends let cyber friends type stupid?
Stupid,
there I typed stupid…
Still wish I had better fingers…
My fingers type ok but my arpeggios tend to suck and my blues scales need work as well.