I'd like the feedback on this subject to continue....?

Question

So what can you do to stop the spread of germs, viruses and flus, both in your school and workplace, and what can others do such as grocery stores and public places to prevent the spread of disease. I suggested that in schools (and we do this) the PTA (since you must fight with the Board and get nowhere) pay for the hand sanitizers...or parents just send your kids to school with them for your classrooms...supermarkets should wipe their carts off or put wipes out for people (cart handles have been proven to have more germs than any other surface!!!)...and what about subways etc...what can we do...I believe we should all walk around with hand sanitizers and I go so far as to wear gloves on the public transportation system. Your thoughts? What are you willing to do to help keep the flu at bay especially with this bird flu lurker ever closer and closer???

Oh and put your meat inside clear plastic bags to stop samonella from spreading all over other items in your cart...I once saw a guy carry a raw turkey and hold it against his chest...eew..some people have no clue about germs and bacteria....time to get everyone educated.

Blondie you are mistaking antibiotics for hand sanitization...you pick up a germ and touch your eye you got a flu bug...that's what they are for.

No I am not a doomsdayer...I see how kids NEVER wash hands at school, wipe snot everywhere, throw up on desks and no one cleans them, etc. etc. etc....would you buy food someone has just coughed on or bread from an open box some man with black fingernails just touched...eew....get real people.

JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW...my 11 year old has cancer. He is VERY SUSCEPTIBLE to germs...they can even kill him. I am shocked and appalled at the ignornce of some people who have no concern for anything and thus I have to advocate for their lack of sensitivity to this matter. I am not obsessive compulsive. I have never been sick a day in the past 5 years nor have I ever taken an antibiotic in over 20 years...I must be doing something right wouldn't you say? Protecting my kid is not something I take lightly nor will I ever.

Well to those of you who are so non-chalant I hope you are the first to volunteer next time there is a SARS outbreak or worse. Since none of you worry about it, you probably won't catch it.

You must all be Americans...why do I bother...now you know why the rest of the world sees you as ignorant...its because you are.

Answer 1

I always keep the hand sanitizer in my purse ....and the clorox handiwipes also...i always wipe the carts in supermarket before I use them and public telephones when I have to use them....tables when I eat out...I use them everywhere and think everyone should. there is too much going around these days...thanks for doing your part!

Answer 2

Your suggestions for hand sanitizers in the school is a good one - as is having wipes to use after you get off the subway, come out of a public washroom, etc.

However, with all this antibacterial stuff around, you have to be aware that we are responsible for creating more and more resistant strains of bacterial and viruses. It is a fine balance, and one shouldn't be avoiding germs at all costs - without beneficial bacteria, our bodies would simply shut down and our immunities to relatively harmless bacteria would be nil, let alone immunities to more aggressive microbes.

Seriously, I think you may need to discuss this with your doctor or other health care professional, as it does sound as though you have obsessive compulsive behaviours, if not full blown obsessive compulsive behaviour.

Obsessions with cleanliness and "germ free" surroundings is the most common form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and can actually become dangerous - especially if you begin to find yourself cleaning your home often with bleach.

Tread carefully here - I know exactly what I am talking about.

Answer 3

All I know is... you can wash your hands all you want, but you can never get rid of all germs. It even says on the bottle "kills 99.9% of gerns" well, that .01% is still there and will repopulate making more germs that won't be killed by hand sanitizers. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future, hand sanitizers won't be quite as effective in killing bacteria. There are all sorts of bacteria out there that are resistant to basic antibiotics. (penicillin, amoxycillin etc) We have a few more different kinds of antibiotics that are a bit stronger than the basic antibiotics but what are we going to do once there are bacteria resistant to those??? All the time I read about people getting sick and dying of hospital infections which are worse than normal infections because the bacteria can withstand the environment in the hospital. My point is, please feel free to clean up and be careful if you choose but know that infections can still happen.

Answer 4

Wow. Maybe everyone should just wear those biohazard suits and gas masks all day. It seems like that's what this world is coming to. Remember like 10 years ago when there were no hand sanitizers? Oh and I've also heard that bacteria is becoming resistant to those. So the more you use them, the less they work. I hate germs and such too, but I am just careful and don't worry about it all the time.

Answer 5

What is with everyone and their obsession with sanitizing everything these days. Growing up we didn't worry about these things. Kids ran around playing in dirt, we didn't care if something fell on the ground we ate it anyways. We washed our hands before meals and took our baths before bed. And left it at that. Studies have actually shown that parents are hurting kids more by over-protecting them against germs, because when they are young they need to build immunities to things. If they never get exposed, they can't build those immunities.

Answer 6

Because it's virtually impossible to eliminate all the germs all of us are faced with on a daily basis, I suggest keeping our immune system in tip top condition by using NutriFeron.

NutriFeron is a patented, clinically proven blend of immune-strengthening plant extracts. Taken daily, NutriFeron strengthens immune response by boosting the body's natural interferon.

Our immune systems are under increasing attach, every day. The scientific and medical communities have identified interferon as critical to healthy immune function. Dr. Kojima, the world renowned immunologist who discovered interferon in 1954, spent 40 years searching for a natural interferon booster. The result of Dr. Kojma's work is the proprietary botanical blend in NutriFeron, the ONLY dietary supplement in the U.S. created by the discoverer of interferon that naturally increases the production of interferon in the body. The formula for NutriFeron is proven by four published human clinical studies. Only one company has the exclusive worldwide marketing rights to this patented formula for human dietary supplement use.

I know you said your son is 11 and this product is typically recommended for those over 12 but this might be an option worth looking into for the future. People with cancer, or a very compromised immune system, can safely take large quantities of Nutriferon.

Hope this is useful and feel free to contact me with questions.

Answer 7

As others have said so much more eloquently than me - if we are never exposed to germs and viruses then we will not have any resistance to those germs and viruses.

The most obsessively clean people I know also spend the most time in the doctor's office of anyone I know.

Answer 8

Don't you think you may be going overboard just a little bit. I'm sure, if you are out to kill all the less harmful germs you are just making way for the more serious ones that are now lurking about in hospitals, etc.

Answer 9

A common sense approach to staying healthy is to wash your hands often.

That said, you have to remember that there are pollutants in every flippin' part of your day. It's impractical, however, to remove every germ - a sterile Earth just insn't doable, or practical.

Rather than being doomsayers about normal everyday living - and encouraging people to lock themselves in to sanitary environments, why not just avoid risky behavior as well as keep you hands clean?

Answer 10

The most simple lesson to prevent spread of germs to yourself, is to just keep your hands away from your face, out of your mouth, and wash them as often as you can. People should be smart enough to just not rub their hands all over their face, giving all the bacteria a chance to not only start acne, and crawl into the mouth and other openings to make you contract the disease, but to just keep their hands away and wash them as soon as they damn can. Most important lesson I learned in microbiology class. Of course, there's also the airborne diseases... I spose people should learn the proper way to sneeze into their elbow region if they need to sneeze and minimize the spread.