Tips for preventing the flu

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The flu epidemic seems to be infecting every part of our area.

From overwhelmed Urgent Care facilities to offices and grocery stores trying to keep up with the germs.

"It definitely scares you," said one resident.

Another resident said, "I hear it's been killing a lot of people."

The flu is now on the forefront of a lot of minds.

The fact is you can get it in so many places, shopping carts, ATMs, and the touch screens to order your food.

Tuesday we spoke with Jefferson Urgent Care physician Dr. Judd Holland at the office in Washington Square.

"The best thing you can avoid doing is being where there's a lot of people. If you get together with 5 or 10 people one of them is going to be sneezing. One of them is probably going to have the flu so you want to avoid them and you want to avoid everything they touch," said Dr. Holland.

He says their office is setting records with flu cases.

"We are seeing twice as many patients in the urgent care as we've ever seen before. The ER yesterday broke our record for ER record by more than 10 percent. There's a lot of sick people," said Dr. Holland.

He says step one is prevention, you can't wash your hands enough right now. He also says proper diet is key.

"You can, and there are many people who carry around a little bottle of Purell or hand sanitizer. Make sure your eating healthy all the things everybody has told you since mom did way back when," said Dr. Holland.

One of the most populated spots in town is the Reading Terminal Market.

There are people everywhere, touching everything.

Assistant general manager Chris Gowen says the staff disinfects all touch point, doors, and tables three times a day.

They offer Purell dispensers to customers.

They even offer "clean" education to the merchants.

"That's frequency of washing your hands, changing your gloves. There's a lot of touch points on their counters to try to keep them as clean as possible," said Gowen.

Every health expert I spoke with today couldn't stress enough - wash your hands.

Buy disinfectant and use it a lot. The flu potentially could be anywhere.