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Five Apps to Help Prevent Illness This Flu Season

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 11-15-10 | Comments

Flu season might be upon us, but that doesn't mean you have to get sick. Here are five apps to fight off the flu.

As temperatures continue to drop during the autumn season, a familiar sound fills the air: the drone of people coughing and sneezing in offices, homes and public transportation. Although your smartphone might be covered with disease-carrying bacteria, it can also contain many useful tools to help prevent illness. Here are our favorite apps to survive flu season:

Outbreaks Near Me

Hygienic practices such as hand washing are always a good starting place for disease prevention. But knowing that the flu virus is going around in your community might encourage you to practice even better habits.

HealthMap's Outbreaks Near Me app, available for both Android and iPhone, tracks real-time disease outbreak information throughout the world.

Outbreaks Near Me tracks local cases of a wide range of dangerous diseases.

The tool will alert you when contagious illnesses have been found in your community, and even lets you post about your own diagnosis. The app tracks both human and animal diseases�everything from swine flu to chickenpox to West Nile virus.

The Swine Flu App

During last year's swine flu epidemic, researchers from Harvard Medical School released this comprehensive, reliable app equipped with everything you need to know about the dangerous disease, including diagnostic tests and prevention tips. It also provides location-based hotlines and emergency telephone numbers.

Harvard's app is particularly useful to businesses. It has an entire section devoted to helping employers educate employees about flu prevention, and learn how to create a pandemic business plan.

Medslog

If you catch a bacterial infection or have a high fever, your doctor is likely to prescribe medications to help you get well. But certain drugs, especially antibiotics, require frequent and long-term dosages. The Medslog app helps you track all of your medications and reminds you when to take them.

Users can simply enter items like prescription drugs or eye drops, as well as the dose and time. The app also lets users input data such as blood pressure and blood sugar. Users can even choose to e-mail their data to a doctor.

FluShotter

One of the simplest ways to prevent getting the flu this year is to get an annual flu shot. But during times of high demand, shot locations can be hard to find, especially in rural areas. The FluShotter app makes getting a flu shot easy. FluShotter contains information about thousands of locations where users can receive flu shots. The app tracks your shot history and can contain the records for multiple users�ensuring that the whole family is equipped to fight the flu this year.

101 Home Remedies

Luckily, there are even apps for the thousands of people who do end up getting sick this flu season. One of our favorites is 101 Home Remedies, which provides quick, natural remedies for many common ailments.

In addition to containing soothing treatments for the flu, the app has information about how to lessen its symptoms, like coughs and muscle cramps.

101 Home Remedies contains quick and natural remedies for everything from asthma to unexpected weight loss.