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Talk about going viral: Touch-screen devices can harbor flu germs

By Bobby Caina Calvan

Published: Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/14/310316 ... z12STpxeAK

A squeeze, a flick, a touch – but keep those grimy, germ-infested hands off that iPhone. Who knows where those fingers have been?

Personal touch-screen devices – iPads, BlackBerrys and Droids – are now seemingly everywhere, potentially harboring the germs and viruses that turn voices raspy and send noses running.

Want to peek at a digital snapshot, a friend's Facebook status or to show off the latest YouTube video? Best to just look, not touch – or risk going viral yourself.

"If you're sharing the device, then you're sharing your influenza with someone else who touches it," said Timothy Julian, a Stanford University doctoral student who co-authored a study on the spread of viruses.

As the seasonal influenza strikes again, the ubiquity of touch-screen devices is just another thing for a germaphobe to worry about.

British researchers provide some stomach-churning data: Mobile phones harbor 18 times more bacteria than a flush handle in a typical men's restroom.

According to Julian's study, published online in July by the Journal of Applied Microbiology, the risks of transmitting pathogens from glass surfaces to a person's skin are relatively high.

"If you put virus on a surface, like an iPhone, about 30 percent of it will get on your fingertips," Julian said. In turn, "a fair amount of it may go from your fingers to your eyes, mouth or nose," the most likely routes of infection.

Of course, no one can be sure how many people have gotten sick from sharing touch-screen electronics. But the devices add to the growing list of so-called fomites – frequently handled objects – that can spread pathogens such as the flu virus.

Handrails, elevator buttons, computer keyboards, automatic teller machines – remember Mom's advice about dirty money – certainly all have the potential of spreading disease.

Jessica Rucker is keenly aware of germs getting on her iPhone. She's a registered nurse in the cardiac unit at the UC Davis Medical Center. "We carry our phones a lot on our floor, so there's a lot of risk for spreading things," she said.

But does she worry?

"I don't share my phone. I don't want anybody dropping it. The screen is so fragile," Rucker said.

Another iPhone user, Waleed Shabbir, a psychology major at California State University, Sacramento, makes it a habit to swab his screen against his pants. "I have no idea why I do it. It's just a habit," Shabbir said.

Germs? Maybe. "We've become a society where we don't touch each other anymore. Now, we have to worry about our phones, too," he said.

That might explain the growing market for wipes to sanitize screens that get touched, pinched and flicked.

One company that sells an antimicrobial case, Proporta, calls it an "alarming" and "not entirely surprising fact that the filthiest things we encounter on a regular basis are computer keyboards and our mobile phones." The company asserts that the average mobile phone has 25,127 germs per square inch.

Despite such marketing pitches, Julian, the Stanford doctoral student, isn't that worried about contracting illness from his Motorola Droid. "In day-to-day life, I don't know how much risk a phone will really have" for spreading influenza, he said.

He guards his phone, but not for health reasons. "I think smart phones have so much personal information in them," he said. "My worry is more about security rather than about infectious disease."

Airborne particles — from coughs and sneezes – could be more serious threats. That's why public health officials launched a campaign at the height of last year's H1N1 pandemic to observe the common courtesies of covering coughs and sneezes.

"People need to clean their hands, and people need to clean their stuff. That will go a long, long way to preventing transmission" of the flu virus, said Amy Nichols, a registered nurse and director of infection control at the UC San Francisco Medical Center.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/14/310316 ... z12STpxeAK

Germs? Why do people insist on killing every germ they can find? They're not all bad. As a matter of fact the reason we're getting so many superbugs is that people feel this compelling need to live in completely sterile environments.

The best thing you can do for you children? Encourage them to get outside and play. If they won't, pick the little bastards up, drag 'em outside, and roll 'em in the mud. This will build their natural immunity up.

Growing up in the countryside is probably the main reason I don't get sick very often.

The other thing I find amusing is all the people that are screaming about how hospital personnel wear their scrubs in from off the street and how that is causing all the super infections in hospitals. I actually LOL at it.

Why?

I don't usually see those idiots arriving at the hospital for patient visits and swapping out their street clothes for sterile hospital attire when they come to visit their hospitalized friends and family. They are likely carrying more harmful stuff in than those people they were complaining about since we probably took a shower immediately before reporting for work.

--LT

LoseThem: ABSOLUTELY right!

This is a hot-topic for me. Germ-phobia has reached epic proportions and could be the death of us all.

I don't allow "anti-bacterial" soap in my house; anything I get on my hands is sufficiently cleaned with a bit of Dove soap, thanks.

Kids who get sent to preschool as early as possible have better infectious disease resitance; proven fact.

Polio (the 'weak' variety) used to be very common, and nearly every baby got it in their first six months from being passed around all the time, and they gained immunity to the more virulent variety.

And there's my neighbor, all excited because her anti-bacterial soap dispeser now comes with a 'proximity' sensor included in the bottle so you don't have to touch the thing; WHAT THE HELL?? Her and her kids are gonna die from the common fucking cold shortly, I assume.

Then, the worst culprit; people who are given antibiotic pills with specific instructions but are too god-damned stupid to follow said instructions, stop taking them early because they feel better, and thereby create the super-bugs mentioned above.

Grr.

On that note, have you seen the new ad for the motion activated soap dispenser,

Eeeeeuuuuuwwwwww! GERMS! on the handle of the soap dispenser, this soap that your going to wash your hands with,

and

people will buy this because they know there hands will have less germs on them before they wash there hands to get the germs off there hands then they had before they were going to wash.

A person is smart, People are stupid, dumb, irrational, impulsive and dangerous.

A sterile soap dispenser so you wont get germs on that antibacterial non allergenic non fragrance soap that you are about to wash your hands with to kill the germs that are killing you.

Think about it,

River

You have to eat a pound of dirt in your lifetime to have a good immune system. I worked in a hosptal for 15 years and I rarely get sick. Immerse yourself in life and nature. Your body knows how to protect you. Oh and by the way doctors make you sick. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.