Blame the ’flu

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 22

Blame the ’flu

The common cold and ’flu might have six times more effect on some driving skills that alcohol, according to Britain’s Medical Research Council. ....

Influenza impairs ability to pay attention, and colds affect manual dexterity and eye-to-hand co-ordination, a research psychologist, Dr Andy Smith, has discovered in the course of tests undertaken at the council’s Common Cold Unit in Salisbury. Subjects were tested before and after contact with cold or flu virus. The attention test involved the subject being given a warning and then having to wait for a spot to appear on a computer screen, then to hit a button. Normal reaction for the

test was 300 milliseconds, but it went up to 500 milliseconds when the subject had ’flu.

A similar test involving alcohol resulted in a time increase of around 10 per cent, but Dr Smith said that did not mean that driving with ’flu was five or six. times worse than driving under the influence of alcohol.

“Tests of clear thinking and similar tests are not impaired by colds or ’flu,” he said.

Dr Smith believes that it has now been demonstrated that the component skills of driving are impaired by minor illness and that there is a need for further research.