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Cell Phones May Spread Infections
CHaN_316 writes "Yahoo is running an article talking about how cell phones from health workers are helping spread dangerous infections in hospitals. 'They found that 12 percent of healthcare providers' cell phones were contaminated with [Acinetobacter baumannii]. The results are disturbing because [it] has the propensity to develop resistance to almost all available antibiotics ... Cell phones provide a large dry surface that allows survival of A. baumannii--it requires no nutrients ... [it] is found in intensive care units, and the mortality rate among infected patients is very high -- between 50 and 60 percent.' The hospital that conducted this research no longer allows the use of cell phones, and are switching to devices that don't require hand contact like pagers." So how long before someone develops a cell phone that can be dunked in alcohol or run through the autoclave to sterilize it?
NEWS FLASH: If you have bacteria on your skin and that spot touches an object, other people touching that object can pick up the bacteria! What can you do to protect your children? Are you safe? Watch Channel 14 KSLSHDOT tonight at 10 and find out!
This isn't news. This is fear-based ratings pandering by the source.
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I am a nurse. Cell phones aren't the problem, people are the problem.
Want to stop the spread of the pathogens on your cell phone or _______ ? It's easy.
1. Wash your fscking hands before and after you examine any patient.
2. Don't use the device during an examination.
Problem solved.
You don't have to kill the little germies on the phone, just wash them off your hands, for %#^$&! sake.
The best way to do is to be.
Doesn't even have to be something in/from a hospital!
Some of the biggest spreaders of disease, even as simple as the common cold or the flu, right on up to SARS, are everyday items such as computer keyboards, regular twisted pair phones, (especially payphones!), and even coinage!
This is why properly washing your hands often is so important in stopping the spread of contagious diseases.