It starts with a sneeze, a cough or a sniffle. It usually gets much worse before it gets better, and the only real remedy is time -- usually three to five days, but as long as two weeks.

Welcome to cold and flu season.

According to nurses with Elgin's St. Joseph Hospital Ask A Nurse hotline, calls from cold and flu sufferers started increasing in late October and have been streaming in ever since. A spokesperson said they anticipate a steady business of inquiries through the winter.

While medical experts don't anticipate a cure any time soon, there are measures you can take to prevent a viral invasion.

Dr. Mark Christensen, a physician with New Lennox Medical Center, an affiliate of Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, said most colds are spread through people to people contact -- shaking hands or touching an object a cold sufferer has touched and then touching your own eyes, nose or mouth.

Unlike the flu, which is more communicable, "Most regular old cold viruses aren't spread through the air," he said, "that's why the whole cornerstone for not getting a cold is washing your hands." How often? Every few hours if you can. According to Christensen, a virus can live on a surface for about four hours, "and it's amazing how much we touch our faces without even realizing it," he said.

Someone is usually most contagious when symptoms are most severe, but "If someone was on the tail end of [a cold or flu], technically you probably could get it from them," he said, so try and avoid crowded elevators, movie theaters and shopping malls. And you might also think twice about throwing a party for 15 sniffling preschoolers, he added.

"You hear families say they keep passing the same bug back and forth, but it's not true," he said. "You can only catch the same cold once -- it's the virus that's constantly mutating...and kids who are in school are usually the problem -- they're exposed virally to 50 other families and are constantly bringing home new viruses."

So it's a good idea to keep your immune system in top shape, he said. Eat your fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, get plenty of rest, drink at least eight glasses of water a day and try to eliminate as much stress from your life as possible. "Stress...kind of knocks your immune system out," Christensen noted.

If you're over 60, have any type of chronic illness or you simply want to decrease your chances of getting sick by about 75 percent, you should ask your doctor about a flu shot.

Unless you're pregnant or allergic to chicken or eggs, "It's not a bad idea for anyone to get a flu shot," Christensen said. "It's a killed virus, so you can't get the actual flu from it" although about five to 10 percent of people who get a shot experience some of the symptoms.

© Copyright 1994 Paula Lauer