Cabin crew and the immune system: why new joiners get sick every month in year one, the colds that follow the roster and what the crew who stopped changed
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#1 Etihad since 2022, skincare at altitude is my hill, and the second hill is the one every new joiner climbs: the year one sickness. The new joiner groups are full of 'I have had four colds in four months, is this normal'. It is, and the reasons are known, and the crew who stopped getting sick did specific things. Here it is from the health board's threads and from my own first year.
Why year one is the sick year
The exposure: hundreds of passengers from a dozen countries in a sealed tube for hours, every day, with the viruses the new joiner's immune system has never met. The sleep: the disrupted circadian rhythm of the first year roster, which suppresses the immune response more than anything else the body does. The cabin air: the low humidity drying the nasal passages that are the first defence. The stress: the new job, the new country, the probation. All four at once in year one, which is why the four colds in four months are normal and not a sign of anything wrong.
What the body is doing
Meeting the viruses and building the immunity to them, which is why year two is better and year three better still: the senior crew have met most of what the cabin carries. The disrupted sleep is the part that does not improve by itself, which is why the crew who stopped getting sick are the ones who fixed the sleep.
The colds that follow the roster
The pattern the crew notice: the cold arrives on the days off after a heavy block, not during it, because the body holds until the pressure releases. The cold after the ultra long haul trip. The cold after the standby block with the three call outs. The crew who track it (the fatigue reporting threads) see the roster in the sickness and the crew who do not think it is random.
The crew who stopped getting sick
From the threads and my own year two: they fixed the sleep first (the anchor sleep, the dark room, the no screens, the fatigue board's rules), which is the single largest change. They hydrated on the flight properly (the two litres, the no alcohol on the layover night before the report). They washed their hands at the galley sink every service and stopped touching their face, which sounds basic and is the thing the nurses on this forum say first. They took the saline nasal spray on every flight to keep the first defence wet. They ate real food on the layover and not the galley snacks. They moved on the layover (Rafael's thread). They got the flu vaccine every autumn and the ones who were eligible got the others. And they stopped flying sick: the cold flown through becomes the sinus infection and the two weeks off, and the senior crew call in sick on day one and are back on day three.
What did not help
The supplements in the quantities the groups recommend (the vitamin C megadoses, the zinc, the immune boosters), which the nurses on this forum say are mostly expensive urine. The antibiotics for the cold, which do nothing and the crew who get them from the layover pharmacy are making a different problem. The flying through it, which is the single worst thing.
For the new joiners in the fourth cold
It is year one and it is normal. Fix the sleep first. Hands, hydration, saline, real food, movement, the vaccine. Call in sick on day one. And know that year two is better because the body has met the cabin, and year three the senior crew's immune system is the thing the new joiners envy.
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#2 Ex Norwegian, now nurse in Oslo, and 'mostly expensive urine' is the nurse's phrase for the megadoses and Olivia has used it correctly. The sleep first, the hands, the saline, the vaccine, the day one sick call: that is the nursing advice and it is the whole list. The antibiotics for the cold paragraph should be read twice.
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#3 Norwegian, fatigue reporting advocate, and the cold arriving on the days off after the heavy block is the pattern the fatigue reports show when the crew track them, and the roster is in the sickness. Olivia has connected the two boards. The sleep is the immune system.
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#4 easyJet initial training at Luton, and the batch is already on the second cold in week four and the trainers say it is the training centre and the new viruses and it will be year one on the line too. This thread is going into the batch group now. The day one sick call is the thing nobody tells us is allowed.
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#5 Japanese carrier, 787, and the saline nasal spray on every flight is the thing the Japanese crew do that the Western crew find odd until they try it, and the dry cabin air drying the first defence is exactly why. Olivia has the mechanism and the fix. Year three immune system, confirmed.
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#6 Delta, year two, and year one was five colds and year two has been one, and the thing I changed was the sleep (the dark room, the anchor) and the hands at the galley sink. The body met the cabin. Olivia's thread is the one I needed in month three.
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#7 Japanese carrier, four years, and the flying through it becoming the sinus infection and the two weeks off is the thing the junior crew do out of fear for the attendance record, and the senior crew call in on day one and are back on day three, exactly. The attendance record is better served by day one. Good thread.
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#8 @emmawings the day one sick call is allowed and is the professional thing, and the trainers would rather you did. @cassieatl five to one is the year one to year two curve exactly and the sleep and the hands did it.