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Why taking 2 days off work when you've got the flu reduces the risk of your colleagues getting it by 40%

Many people try to bravely soldier on when they have the flu but new research has shown it really would be best - for both them and their employer - if they stayed home.

Staff who take two days off work when sick with the flu reduce the risk of their colleagues getting the bug by 40 per cent, a study has found.

And the simulated flu epidemic showed that even having just one day off was still beneficial - cutting workplace transmissions of the virus by 25 per cent.

Stay home: Staff members who take two days off sick when ill with the flu cut the chances of their colleagues getting the virus by 40% (stock image)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that staff staying home when sick with the flu prevented further illness among their colleagues and reduced the overall cost to their company.

Epidemiologist Dr Supriya Kumar said: 'The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people with flu stay home for 24 hours after their fever breaks. However, not everyone is able to follow these guidelines.

'Many more workers in small workplaces than in large ones lack access to paid sick days and hence find it difficult to stay home when ill.

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'Our simulations show allowing all workers access to paid sick days would reduce illness because fewer workers get the flu over the course of the season if employees are able to stay home and keep the virus from being transmitted to their co-workers.'

Dr Kumar and her colleagues found that ‘flu days’, in which all employees had access to one or two paid days off work to recover from the virus, drastically reduced the spread of the bug in the workplace. 

The analysis, the first of its kind, showed staff are more likely to keep away when the bug is at its most infectious if they know they won’t lose any pay.

But flu days worked best in large workplaces with 500 or more employees, the American Journal of Public Health reports online.

Dr Kumar added: 'These findings make a strong case for paid sick days. Future research should examine the economic impacts of paid sick-day policies.'

Transmitting the virus: Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that paid flu days cost companies less in the long run (stock image)

Her researchers used a computer model called ‘Framework for Reconstructing Epidemic Dynamics’ (FRED).

Co author Professor Donald Burke said: 'Our mission is to protect the US and the global community against communicable infectious disease threats.

'Our modelling work allows scientists both here and worldwide to investigate strategies to minimise epidemics. At the heart of this effort is free, open data sharing.'

A previous study by scientists at the University of Arizona found that when just one person comes to work sick, more than half of the commonly touched surfaces in the office become infected with the virus by lunchtime.

Conducted in an office, the study included about 80 participants, some of whom received droplets on their hands at the start of a normal work day.

While most of those droplets were plain water, one person unknowingly received a droplet containing artificial viruses mimicking the cold, the flu and a stomach bug.

Employees were instructed to go about their day as usual. After about four hours, researchers sampled commonly touched surfaces in the office, as well as employees' hands, and found that more than 50 per cent of surfaces and employees were infected with at least one of the viruses.

Researchers swabbed surfaces and hands again at the end of the work day. By then, the cold and flu viruses, known for their short survival time, had dissipated, but the stomach virus had continued to spread, infecting up to 70 per cent of surfaces tested.

However the study also revealed that simple interventions, such as hand washing and the use of hand sanitiser or wipes, can drastically reduce employees' risk of infection.


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