1. Hand Washing. Washing your hands is one of the best ways to help prevent getting an infection. People with sickle cell disease, their family, and other caretakers should wash their hands with soap and clean water many times each day. If you don’t have soap and water, you can use gel hand cleaners with alcohol in them.

Times to wash your hands:

BEFORE

• Making food
• Eating

AFTER

• Using the bathroom
• Blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• Shaking hands
• Touching people or things that can carry germs, such as:
  - Diapers or a child who has used the toilet
  - Food that is not cooked (raw meat, raw eggs, or unwashed vegetables)
  - Animals or animal waste
  - Trash
  - A sick person

2. Food Safety. Bacteria, called salmonella, in some foods can be especially harmful to children with sickle cell disease. How to stay safe when cooking and eating:
• Wash hands, cutting boards, counters, knives, and other utensils after they touch uncooked foods.
• Wash vegetables and fruit well before eating them.
• Cook meat until it’s well done. The juices should run clear and there should be no pink inside.
• Do not eat raw or undercooked eggs. Raw eggs might be hiding in homemade hollandaise sauce, caesar and other homemade salad dressings, tiramisu, homemade ice cream, homemade mayonnaise, cookie dough, and frostings.
• Do not eat raw or unpasteurized milk or other dairy products (cheeses). Make sure these foods have a label that says they are “pasteurized”.
  
  
3. Avoid Reptiles. Bacteria, called salmonella, that some reptiles have can be especially harmful to children with sickle cell disease. Make sure children stay away from turtles, snakes, and lizards.
   
   
4. Vaccines. Vaccines are a great way to prevent many serious infections. Children with sickle cell disease should get all the regular childhood vaccines, plus a few extra.
   The extra ones are:
   • Flu vaccine every year after 6 months of age.
   • A pneumococcal vaccine (called 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine) at 2 and 5 years of age.
   • Meningococcal vaccine (for some children).

   Click here for the regular childhood vaccination schedule. Don’t forget to add the extra vaccines listed previously for children with sickle cell disease.

   Click here to find information for parents about vaccinations.
   
   Adults should have the flu vaccine every year, as well as the pneumococcal vaccine and any others recommended by a doctor.

5. Penicillin. Take penicillin (or other antibiotic prescribed by a doctor) every day until at least 5 years of age.
   

To see more tip sheets, click on one of the links below:

• Living With Sickle Cell Disease
• When To See the Doctor