Festival Flu: It exists, and here’s how you can avoid it

Overview

Remember when you attendeda music show (or a cultural festival like Garba or Ram Lila) with your friends and a thousand others? You enjoyed the reverberating music, made memories, and indulged your taste buds with mouth-watering foods.These are some of the good memories of the festival. Now let’s talk about the not-so-goodmemory – the flu-like symptoms you experienced after reaching home or during the music festival. It is called festival flu.

If you are wondering what it is and how to avoid it, read to find out all about it, its symptoms, and the reasons for festival flu.

What is festival flu?

Festival flu is a common term used by doctors to describe the illness that one develops after a weekend gathering of tens of thousands of people for a music or a cultural or film festival.

What are the symptoms of festival flu?

According to American Lung Association, the festival flu’s symptoms are similar to a common cold. These symptoms may last anywhere between a few days or a week. Some of the common symptoms are as follows:

• Runny nose
• Cough
• Sneezing
• Irritated throat

As music and film festivals bring tens of thousands of people together, flu-like symptoms are bound to spread. However, research has found that people get exposed to upper respiratory infections, and nearly half of such infections are due to rhinovirus. The symptoms of rhinovirus include nasal dryness, headache, sore throat, and facial and ear pressure.

Participants in music and film festivals can also be exposed to other bacterial and viral infections. Symptoms of such disorders are coughing, sneezing, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, tiredness, and cramping.

How to avoid festival flu?

The following are specific preventive measures you can follow to prevent developing festival flu.

1. Wear a mask: Wearing a mask doesn’t hurt anyone. It protects you and the people around you from developing and spreading bacterial and viral infections. 
2. Avoid touching commonly used surfaces: The CDC recommends limiting or avoiding touching surfaces people often use. It also suggests limiting physical actions such as hugging, shaking hands, and high-fiving as it spreads infections.
3. Use sanitiser: If you cannot avoidusing public toilets, touching commonly used surfaces, or physically touching people, it is always better to use sanitiser at regular intervals. Sanitiser may help reduce the spread of infection.
4. Keep yourself hydrated: Keep drinking water whenever possible. Carry a reusable water bottle with you to refill whenever required. It is also a good idea to limit the consumption of alcoholicbeverages and aerated drinks as they may cause dehydration.
5. Multivitamins are essential: Taking multivitamins helps replenishthe nutrients that may be missing from your diet, particularly vitamin C. Try to include fresh fruits as much as possible to help boost your immune system.
6. Say no to sharing food: Avoid sharing food and drinks, as tempting as your friend’s bacon sandwich may be. It is the easiest way to spread diseases and infections. It may also not be worth the sniffles and sneeze or stomach upsets you experience the next day or after the festival.
7. Do not smoke and stay away from those who smoke. Inhaling smoke — even second hand smoke— can irritate your throat and cause a cough.

• Sleep is good: Everybody knows that getting a good snooze is vital in fighting diseases. However, not many of us get a good rest due to the festival excitement. However, sleeping or getting a few hours of shut eye is crucial, even in the afternoon. If you cannot sleep, invest in good earplugs to eliminate the noise.
• Avoid touching your face: Your hands may be a playground for germs. So, it is essential not to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth to avoid contracting  any possible infectious germs.
• Take allergy medications: if you are allergic to common triggers such as dust, it is vital to take your allergy medication before you develop an allergic reaction and your condition worsens.

Conclusion

We attend music and film festivals to have fun and break free from our routines. However, it is also important not to throw caution to the wind. Keep yourself hydrated, sanitise, wear a mask, and follow basic preventive measuresto avoid festive flu. Usually, it is not a specific disease but a combination of shouting, screaming, dehydration, lack of nutrition and lack of sleep.