BBC expert says £1.10 item can 'stop you getting' Covid, Flu, cold, RSV, as cases rise

BBC expert says £1.10 item can 'stop you getting' Covid, Flu, cold, RSV, as cases rise Appearing on BBC Morning Live, Dr Ranj Singh told viewers about the rise in illnesses this winter. A BBC expert has explained that a £1.10 item can make a massive difference to whether you’ll get a cold, flu or COVID-19 this winter. Appearing on BBC Morning Live, Dr Ranj Singh told viewers about the rise in illnesses this winter. He said, for example, that flu positivity is growing - and it arrived in the UK earlier this year. Dr Singh said: “The big one won’t be a surprise, flu. Caused by the influenza A virus, lots of different strains. “It’s an illness that predominantly affects the nose, throat, and lungs, but can make you feel really, really groggy, spread through infected respiratory droplets, close contact, touching contaminated surfaces, etc. So what we’ve seen this year in 2026, we’ve seen a an earlier rise in cases. So in October 2025, we had a lower test positivity. Now it’s slightly higher in October 2026.” He said the ‘big’ item which people can buy to avoid illness is hand sanitiser. He said: “It reduces the transmission of so many different infections. And when we’re talking about hand hygiene, we’re talking about mainly either the use of hand sanitiser, which often contains alcohol, or hand washing. “Now, the key thing here is we always use anti-sanitiser. Many of us used it during the pandemic, and we think it works for everything. It is good for most viruses like COVID, flu. Why? Those viruses are wrapped in a fatty layer, and the alcohol breaks that fatty layer down and kills the virus off. Unfortunately, though, doesn’t work for things like Norovirus. Norovirus has a protective protein armour around it. So the alcohol can’t penetrate it well enough.” Hand sanitiser can be bought for just £1.10 in stores across the UK such as Tesc o. He also said people should consider opening windows: “The other thing I want to talk about prevention is ventilation. A lot of these viruses are respiratory and airborne spread. So ventilating even at this time of year is really really important if you can.” Dr Singh reminded people of three key symptoms which could indicate people have Covid. He said: “Remember for this the loss of smell and taste. And also the gastrointestinal symptoms are quite predominant in COVID.” For preventing American Covid, Dr Singh said people should consider masks: “Prevention again we’ll talk about ventilation really important, hygiene is really important. Masks in high-risk situations, especially if you’re around very very vulnerable people and again COVID vaccination is being offered to certain high-risk groups.” On RSV, respiratory syncytial virus. Dr Singh said it is a ‘mild illness but can be really bad if you’re elderly.’ He said: “If you’ve got underlying health problems and for children under the age of five, it can cause a condition called bronchiolitis which is horrific um and can land them in hospital. Again, it’s spread through respiratory droplets or close contact, and it peaks around this time of year.” Ensure our latest health headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings “The thing I want people to bear in mind here is children under the age of two are particularly vulnerable to this, especially if they were born prematurely, if they’ve got chronic lung conditions or heart conditions, they can end up with really severe disease. So, they might have significant laboured breathing, significant feeding difficulties, may even stop breathing, have pauses in the breathing, and that often lands them in hospital, and they are more likely to need supportive treatment. “Really important in these situations that you’re careful with your hygiene, careful around small children if you’ve got it.”