Wash your hands

[The Dude]

Techs can avoid cold/flu viruses by washing hands
Pat Vickers

Techs are constantly touching other user's keyboards, mice, and phones. While this contact may seem harmless, I have always theorized that this interaction is the cause of many a support tech's misery during the cold and flu season. If I'm right, not only do support techs pick up cold and/or flu bugs from end users' peripherals, they also pass them to other keyboards and, therefore, to other people. I decided to investigate this, and here's what I found. [more]

Very good reading!!

I wash my hands several times a day,its good practice me thinks!!

[Bizman]

Nice article and timeless, too.

But don't they say kids should lick some shoes daily to get some immunity to most common germs? I used to work as a salesman for 18 years and rarely got sick, although I shook hands about 30 times a day and couldn't wash my hands very often. I even used to eat while driving from customer to another. Without washing hands, of course...

I guess the secret was in my physical condition. I didn't exercise, but I had to walk quite a lot with my heavy bag from the nearest free parking lot to the customer's office and back. I also used stairs a lot.

But I really agree, that touching your face, mainly eyes or nostrils, is the way to pick up those flu bugs among other things. I noticed this painfully during a 10 km's car trip: I had struck a cat, although I'm allergic to them. Of course it made my eyes itch, so naturally I grinded my eyeballs with my knuckles, the result being an almost unbearable painly itching. A thorough rinsing with plain water helped a lot, before I could get some medication.

[vmanes]

Keyboard, mouse and phone were among the top 5 dirtiest objects in the office environment, according to some unnamed survey my morning radio show folks discussed recently.

What's the dirtiest part of the office?
Women's Desks dirtier
(funny, both of these mention that desks are 400 times more germ-laden than a toilet!)