Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Football fans in Seattle and New England fresh off rooting for their beloved Seahawks and Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday may want to use a little extra hand-sanitizer this morning, according to a new Tulane University study.
According to lead author Charles Stoecker, assistant professor of global health systems and development at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, cities and regions that send teams to the Super Bowl typically see a big spike in flu-related deaths.
In fact, statistics from 1974-2009 revealed an 18 percent increase in flu deaths among those over the age of 65 in those areas. The reason for the phenomenon, Stoecker explained, is that playoff games tend to bring people closer together in the heart of the annual flu season. While rooting for their teams, those fans are also likely spreading germs in close quarters.
Step away from the dip
“You’re going to the bar or to peoples’ homes for watch parties and you’re double dipping the chip – or somebody else is – and you’re spreading the flu,” he said in a statement. “Football fans might contract a mild case of influenza, but then pass it on to other, potentially more susceptible people.”
The effect tends to be worse in years when the dominant strain is more virulent, as is the case with this year’s influenza A (H3N2), as well as when the Super Bowl occurs closer to the peak of flu season.
According to the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu activity can begin as October and continue to occur as late as May, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly when it will peak. However, it commonly peaks in the US between December and February, the agency said.
The Tulane University professor went on to explain that postseason play tends to cause people to change their travel patterns. As a result, fans and tourists tend to mix together while travelling to or from the game, presenting more opportunities for exposure to the pathogen.
Ironically, Stoecker and his colleagues did not find an increase in flu-related deaths in the cities that host the big game. Those places are usually warmer-weather areas such as Miami, Phoenix or New Orleans that are “less amenable to flu transmission,” he explained.
The study, which was co-authored by economists Alan Barreca of Tulane and Nicholas Sanders from the College of William & Mary, suggest that public health officials should redouble their efforts and make sure that fans in these cities to take extra precautions.
“Strategies exist to help offset such effects,” the authors wrote. “If a major contributor to increased influenza spread is local gatherings for watching games, a simple policy solution is to increase awareness of influenza transmission vectors during times of sports-related gatherings.”
“Reminding people to wash their hands and avoid sharing drinks or food at parties during the height of influenza season, especially if they have high amounts of contact with vulnerable populations, could have large social returns,” they continued, adding that the same phenomenon could also hold true for other sporting events, including the Olympics or the World Cup.
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