How long do bacteria/virus survive outside body?

[Luddly Neddite]

You'll Want To Wash Your Hands <em>Immediately</em> After Reading This

Very poor graphic but interesting subject. IMO.

I'm big on hand washing but avoid "antibacterial" products except that I always clean the handle on the grocery cart.

Recently, I read a list of the dirtiest places that included the TV remote in hotel rooms so we always clean that too.

Anyone else have habits or methods to avoid illness?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Have read similar studies about dirtiest stuff. Money usually comes in no. 1. Drug residue, germs, etc. on paper currency. Household sponge or dishcloth usually no. 2.

Now that they're recalling and discontinuing germicidal bodywashes containing tryclosan, newer ones are available that do the same thing but without the bone thinning side effects of tryclosan. And as it always has, pure alcohol works too.

When I'm baking on Tuesdays and Fridays treats for other people I'm much more fastidious about cleanliness. For myself though I'm more 'a little poison every day' and my apartment reflects that with how I don't go out of my way to dust or clean anything unless it's a contact-surface, or something involving food. Food prepared for myself is always baked at about 550F (liking meats well-done, or as my Mom would tease, burnt beyond recognition.) But blast furnace-like temps will vaporize anything and everything.

Take a handfull of vitamins and supplements every other day as well (body can only absorb so much excreting the rest so every other day is more sensible than every day.) As a result of this and everythign else I never seem to get sick. 42, and in perfect health in every area. Last time I got sick it was sis-in-law's fault being a student at the time. Classrooms are incubators for germs. Made sure I teased her about it for a few years afterwords.

 

[whitehall]

How did AIDS get lost in the equation? By the 80's everyone in the entire United States, especially the at-risk people were well aware of the meaning of the letter "A" in AIDS. You didn't get the horrible disease by airborne bacteria or snot on a doorknob. The "A" means acquired and yet millions of homosexual men acquired the disease by engaging in risky sexual encounters knowing full well of the risks. Thanks to the pandering democrat party and the liberal establishment they managed to blame everyone from the republican party to the CDC to state and local government for the disease they acquired by risky conduct. David Horowitz relates a political struggle related to AIDS in his book "Prodigal Son". The city of San Francisco wanted to close the "bath houses" which were nothing but taxpayer funded places for homosexual anonymous sodomy and a source for the AIDS outbreak but amazingly the gay community refused to comply.

 

[Political Junky]

How did AIDS get lost in the equation? By the 80's everyone in the entire United States, especially the at-risk people were well aware of the meaning of the letter "A" in AIDS. You didn't get the horrible disease by airborne bacteria or snot on a doorknob. The "A" means acquired and yet millions of homosexual men acquired the disease by engaging in risky sexual encounters knowing full well of the risks. Thanks to the pandering democrat party and the liberal establishment they managed to blame everyone from the republican party to the CDC to state and local government for the disease they acquired by risky conduct. David Horowitz relates a political struggle related to AIDS in his book "Prodigal Son". The city of San Francisco wanted to close the "bath houses" which were nothing but taxpayer funded places for homosexual anonymous sodomy and a source for the AIDS outbreak but amazingly the gay community refused to comply.

AIDS is pretty hard to catch, other than blood or bodily fluids during sex.
San Francisco did close the bath houses.

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-05-08/news/mn-2810_1_gay-bathhouse


Last Gay Bathhouse in S.F. Agrees to Close Its Doors
May 08, 1987|ILANA DeBARE | Times Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; The last remaining gay bathhouse in San Francisco closed with hardly a ripple this week, a victim of stricter laws and changing life styles brought about by the AIDS epidemic.

In April, the San Francisco city attorney's office had charged 21st Street Baths with violating a 1984 court order requiring clubs to bar sexual activities that could spread acquired immune deficiency syndrome. But this week, the bathhouse's owners reached a settlement with the city that called for closure of the bathhouse in exchange for dismissal of the charges, said Deputy City Atty. Burk Delventhal.

 

[Sunshine]

Harmful bacteria known as pathogens do not survive well outside the body. Many of them need liquid to survive and once the surface they are on has dried up, they are dead. Some, though, can go dormant and remain so for quite some time. Strep is one of those. Diptheria is present in our throat all the time and must be activated by a phage (virus) to become deadly.

In dealing with bacteria, you have your bacteriacides which kill them and bacteriastats which inhibit them. Copper is bacteriastatic and we were taught in nursing school that if we ever had to deliver a baby outside the hospital to tape put a penny over the infant's navel site where the cord was cut.

Viruses are another matter. It is debated whether they are actually alive because the only function of life they perform is replication. Things that kill bacteria do not do anything to stop viruses. Although it is claimed that HIV is no longer able to infect you once it has dried, we had to gown, glove, and mask when we reconstituted and administered freeze dried factor 8 to the hemopheliacs in the hospital. I always thought that was contrary to our teaching that the dried out HIV virus could not infect a person.

The one thing that rids the world of the most bacteria is sunlight. Without UV light, bacteria would occupy more mass than the earth in just a few days. We all have a large amount of non harmful bacteria (normal flora) all over our bodies. Yes, we are our own little ecosystems, and our skin would not fare well without it.

I always found it interesting that Florence Nightingale did not believe in Germ Theory. But she believed in cleanliness and her methods were, therefore, therapeutic.

When I change the cassette to my med pump, I use 'clean' technique, but when I change the dressing on my Hickman catheter that is done using 'sterile' technique. Many people who have to use this set up get infections and become septic because they don't really understand the techniques involved and get careless.

You can't avoid bacteria and viruses, but studies have shown that the hand sanitizers do cut down on bacteria as well or better than washing. Be that as it may, I prefer hand washing. That is not always possible though, so I carry hand sanitizer in my purse and in my car. It is good to clean shopping cart handles. Studies have shown that grocery cart handles have e coli on them. I try to stay out of crowds, take my flue shot, wash my produce, and avoid going to the hospital if at all possible because hospitals are the dirtiest places on earth.

 

[Sunshine]

How did AIDS get lost in the equation? By the 80's everyone in the entire United States, especially the at-risk people were well aware of the meaning of the letter "A" in AIDS. You didn't get the horrible disease by airborne bacteria or snot on a doorknob. The "A" means acquired and yet millions of homosexual men acquired the disease by engaging in risky sexual encounters knowing full well of the risks. Thanks to the pandering democrat party and the liberal establishment they managed to blame everyone from the republican party to the CDC to state and local government for the disease they acquired by risky conduct. David Horowitz relates a political struggle related to AIDS in his book "Prodigal Son". The city of San Francisco wanted to close the "bath houses" which were nothing but taxpayer funded places for homosexual anonymous sodomy and a source for the AIDS outbreak but amazingly the gay community refused to comply.

People in health care use universal precautions and avoid contact with ALL body fluids.

 

[auditor0007]

You'll Want To Wash Your Hands <em>Immediately</em> After Reading This

Very poor graphic but interesting subject. IMO.

I'm big on hand washing but avoid "antibacterial" products except that I always clean the handle on the grocery cart.

Recently, I read a list of the dirtiest places that included the TV remote in hotel rooms so we always clean that too.

Anyone else have habits or methods to avoid illness?

When you turn off the water in a public bathroom, use a towel. When you open the door to leave that bathroom, open it with a paper towel in your hand. Not everyone washes their hands. When they leave the bathroom, they touch that same handle on the bathroom door as you do.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - an' dey's got potassium in `em too...

Banana Protein May Help Kill Viruses
October 23, 2015 - Bananas are one of those foods — they're a good source of all kinds of vitamins and minerals, they can help fight depression, ward off muscle cramps, lower blood pressure and protect against heart attack. Now, bananas could provide a new weapon against viruses.

According to a recently published study, a protein found in bananas known as lectin — or, colloqially, as BanLec — is being turned into a drug that may someday be used to fight viral infections. Shown to disarm a number of aggressive viruses, the protein attaches to sugar molecules and keeps viruses out of cells, preventING infection. But when scientists isolated the protein for therapeutic trials, BanLec also caused irritation and inflammation, so an international team studied the protein and identified the part that caused those side effects. With some genetic tinkering, they developed a version of BanLec, which retained the retained the proteins anti-viral properties but without the immune response.

[cemnter]

A protein called BanLec, which is found in bananas, has been shown to disarm a number of aggressive viruses.[/center]

Writing in the journal Cell, the team says it could be one of the first broad-spectrum antiviral agents to treat a variety of viruses, including HIV, hepatitis and even the common avian influenza bug. Co-senior author David Markovitz, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, warns that you can't get the benefits of banLec by eating a bunch of bananas. “Remember, when you are eating the banana, then the protein which, by the way, is not our modified protein, but the natural protein – it’s probably going to be chewed up by the stomach acid. So we very much doubt that eating bananas will help you," said Markovitz. Markovtiz says the new and improved version of BanLec must be injected.

Originally, Markovitz says, the banana protein was being investigated as a microbicide, an agent that women can use before sexual intercourse as a cream or gel to protect them against HIV infection. But it was shown to disarm a number of viruses, which then simply wither away if they can’t infect cells. At this point, Markovitz says there are no plans to conduct human clinical trials. “We’re trying to help people with their health, not harm them. And so it’s good to be cautious about where we are going. You know, we’re also very ambitious to make things work well and bring these to clinical fruition, but we’re not there. We’re early on still," he said. The sugar molecule that BanLec harnesses offers a unique strategy for fighting viruses, one that scientists say could be used to develop other antiviral drugs.

Banana Protein May Help Kill Viruses