Sitting in bed witht he flu, I wondered does anyone ever get the flu (or even sick) on a nuclear sub? And if so, does it spread like wild fire?

~Chip

I had to laugh at this one. I got a picture in my head of a destroyer tracking a sub and the sonar operator saying to the Captain "I think we've found a new class of sub, listen to this" and the captain hearing "Achoo, cough cough, achoo, cough" on the headset. "Those damn Russians have a new secret weapon!" #:-)

I suppose it could really cause big problems as some of the flu bugs going round these days really do screw people up.

Once everyone is on board and the hatch is shut, any germs you bring get shared with all hands. Typically, the first week or so of an underway, those shared germs result in minor upper respiratory illness (the comman cold). After that there is no problem until you come back into port and are introduced to new germs. I've never heard of a boat with a flu epidemic but then we are required to get a flu shot every year.

v/r,
Cob

I'm surew the Air Filtration Systems Handle all Kinds of Nasty Stuff.....

I did the nuclear sub thing for six years and agree with COB. If you have someone get sick other than the common cold, it's almost always an isolated incident.

I'll bet it was pretty bad in the Diesel age though...before all the fancy air-filtration.