Little Hawk, your advice for keeping healthy is all good, but it's a counsel of perfection; it works fine until you find yourself in an environment rich in virulent contagious diseases. A healthy immune system can handle the occasional sneeze from a flu-bearing fellow diner at a restaurant, or the colds and collywobbles that come home from school with most kids (the Canadian norm is two per household). It's quite another matter, however, to face the highly contagious people who parade all day through every doctor's office and emergency room. The people who provide the most intimate personal care services (think "bedpan" and you're in the ball-park) are in constant contact with the stuff of epidemiologists' nightmares. And then there are teachers and day-care workers, who spend each working day surrounded by the germs of dozens of kids, none of whom ever have a Kleenex.

Bring on the MMMP, the flu shot, the gamma globulin!