Spreadin' the glove: TSA infecting U.S.?

Spreadin' the glove: TSA infecting U.S.? Latex coverings 'have been in crotches, armpits, touching people who may be ill' By Bob Unruh © 2011 WorldNetDaily Those latex gloves Transportation Security Administration agents wear while giving airline passengers those infamous full-body pat-downs apparently aren't there for the safety and security of passengers – only the TSA agents. That's the word being discussed on dozens of online forums and postings after it was noted that the agents wear the same gloves to pat down dozens, perhaps hundreds, of passengers, not changing them even though the Centers for Disease Control in its online writings has emphasized the important of clean hands to prevent the exchange...

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Posted in: CDC,GLOVES,HOMELAND SECURITY,SEARCHES,TSA

Hands Contaminated About Equally After Contact With Patient Skin, Surfaces

Usha Stiefel MD, of the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues, have demonstrated in a new study in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology that hand contamination was likely to be equal after contact with commonly examined patient skin sites and commonly touched environmental surfaces in patient rooms, and that their findings suggest that contaminated surfaces may be an important source of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) transmission. As the researchers note, "The relative importance of environmental surfaces compared with patients’ skin as a source for contamination of the hands of healthcare workers is unclear. Because some studies suggest that acquisition of S. aureus on hands...

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The Top 5 Places to Catch the Flu | Occupational Healthcare

The Top 5 Places to Catch the Flu  Here we are just into the opening weeks of a new year, and influenza is well into its annual assault on America. Germs aren’t hard to find this season, but where they hide might surprise you. At the Office We spend more than a third of our lives at the workplace. This tops our list for flu exposure. Depending on the layout of where you work, you may find yourself uncomfortably close to a sneezing, sputtering coworker. Perhaps you share a telephone with several others. Breath is heavy with moisture and creates a nice warm place for bacteria and viruses to multiply in the telephone mouthpiece. So you may be sharing more that simply a telephone. Keyboards also get pretty germy. Our fingers are moist...

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Posted in: bug,flu,GERMS,home,influenza,office,teria,virus,work

Flu-fighting credit card tips

Cards can carry germs, but you can be inhospitableBy Jay MacDonald What's your best money defense against the H1N1 swine flu?  It just might be your credit card, provided you follow these flu-fighting safety tips. Seasonal viruses tend to spread from person to person when the germs that cause them become airborne via coughing and sneezing. When you touch a surface that contains those germs and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, those hitchhiking microbes can quickly start a block party in your body. Money is a common carrier of seasonal germs, which thrive in warm, relatively moist locations like your purse, trousers or jacket pockets. Because it is porous and changes hands frequently, currency can easily pick up and pass on germs....

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