Professions Most Vulnerable to Colds and Flus

Your job―and everything it entails―could put you at risk.

Here are occupations that come with a high chance of catching a cold or the flu:
 

• Teachers: Spending time with lots of students in a classroom increases your odds.
• Air-traffic controllers and others in high-stress professions: Chronic stress can impair immune function, making people vulnerable to whatever illnesses come their way.
• Medical residents and interns: They are exposed to loads of germs but haven’t developed the immunity of seasoned doctors.
• Businesspeople with heavy travel schedules: Long hours spent on airplanes with other people’s germs increase the chances of coming down with an upper-respiratory infection or the flu.
• Day-care workers: You can blame it on all the close contact with young kids, whose developing immune systems make them prey to every bug going around.