I recently came back from a trip where the people on both sides of me were coughing their heads off. The phlegm was flying. I tried my best not to breathe in after a sneeze (I saw one time on the Discovery Channel where they showed the particles in the air after a sneeze in an elevator. Disgusting!), but I found out later it did not matter.

I arrived at my destination after a few hours with this crew. The next day I woke up OK, just a little sore. Within 24 hours I was really work and starting to get very tired. Within 48 hours I was all stuffed up and exhausted.

I had 1 week vacation and was sick as a dog for the most part. I even had to get an out of network doctor to see me and prescribe multiple medications. I had bronchitis at this point.

2 weeks later and I am finally feeling better while back at work in the office. I do not know any way to prevent this, but this was a terrible inconvenience. I did find this website for flu hot spots US Flu Map, but a lot of good it did for me contracting this on the plane. People on the plane were from all over.

Maybe next vacation I will either stay home or go on a shorter trip.