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Keyboards are Havens for Super Bugs
Techguy666 writes "Gee, this is a suprise. Researchers have found that keyboards harbor bacteria and super-germs. This is particularly interesting this time because this research noted that there is a lot of computer use in hospitals and they're finding it really difficult to sterilize them."
Perhaps using a keyboard you can clean the "normal" way would help:& lastcatid=119&step=4
http://www.icintracom.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=4564
Now don't say that they couldn't have thought of it too (I mean that, don't say it).
http://fingerworks.com/
I have one, you can clean the entire surface with windex or lysol. It uses E-field sensing so does not have the drawbacks of membrane keyboards and in fact has many advantages over regular keyboards.
http://notanumber.net/
I work in a research lab, and the way we clean keyboards is by using compressed air to blow out the dust and dirt, then spraying them with 70% ethanol to remove organics. After the ethanol, they airdry pretty quick, and at the very least, we *think* they're clean. :)
I don't know about you, but I'd get my daily dose of bacteria from my keyboard and keep my immune system up and ready to fight off.
Properly hand washing/cleaning alleviate this problem. The hospitals I work at are setup with hand cleaner all over the place so its nearly impossible to forget.
How about just disposing of the plastic cover and getting a new one after a set period of time. Like surgical gloves for computer use.
A solution like the laser keyboard could be ideal for the situation, though it will be a while before the cost comes down. Since it projects onto a surface, the table/counter could be cleaned easily.
You could always clean it in the dishwasher...
What about using ultraviolet light to disinfect the keyboards? Maybe a cover for the keyboard which has UV lights on it. On another note, what about bathroom door handles?
Even though that would be incredibly wasteful, there is a reason they wont do that: Labor time and security.
If a hospital has 1000 keyboards to change every day, that would cost an assload more than just the cost of the keyboards.
Plus, you would have to give the "keyboard exchanger job" full access to all of the hospital. These people would also likely be paid near nothing, so the incentive to steal or even pry goes up.
Bad news broncos. Better solution would be to just implement better cleaning around keyboards (hand sanitizers, etc) to prevent the keyboars from getting uber-dirty in the first place. 1000x cheaper in the long term.
I'd have guessed 'yes.' I had to deploy a computer once in a 'flock line' which is where they put that fuzzy crap on polyethylene ribbon for Christmas. Looks oh so festive but it gets old when you bathe in it; it's essentially nylon fibers that are a couple thousandths of an inch high and the shit goes EVERYWHERE while you're processing it. It's itchy, too.
Anyway, the machine was in a filtered enclosure and the monitor had a keyboard condom on it. Problem solved. Dunno why the same thing wouldn't work for hospitals.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
The local pizza joint uses some kind of flat translucent rubber keyboard with no moving parts. It can survive flour, water, or tomato sauce with a quick wipe-off. Although it's an elegent and cheap solution, I'm sure the health care industry will fork over millions of dollars to develop some method of enclosing the ancient PC-XT-AT-whatever connected keyboards they use now to the ancienter host running vaccum tubes under the desk.
Perhaps they could submerge a rubber keyboard in a shallow tray of anit-bacterial hand gel. Your finger tips would rest in 1/4" of gel while you typed. When you were done typing, you could just rub your hands togeather and the gel would evaportate. 'Course, whatever survives that environment would be a mega-super-duper-bug! And then what would we do, submerge our fingers in a shallow tray of weak acid?
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
This is in no way limited to keyboards.
In the early 90'ies, I worked for a computing department for a university that ran a help desk. They noticed that employees were getting sick all the time. They changed policies, and made everyone who worked the help desk bring their own phone handset, and the illnesses decreased.
The moral of the story is that germs can infect anything we touch, and so don't share things many people need to use. Or buy appropriate hardware / cleaning systems to handle it.
Was the cockroach named archy by any chance?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
I have a "virtually indestructible" keyboard. It's rollable, light blue rubber, water proof, and if it ever gets dirty (spilled soup, etc) I can chuck the whole thing in the sink and scrub it. No nooks/crannies, just 101 waterproof keys.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
About 25 years ago I was the Sysadmn + Chief Cook and Bottle washer for a system in a Pathology Lab. It took real time data from all of the medical equipment that the lab used to test your blood. The lab in a hospital is where the sickest parts of the sickest people are brought to. The Doctor who ran the lab forced my company to by a second set of tools and software that never left the lab. I washed the hell out of my hands everytime I left that place. The rule we used was, once it went into the lab, it never came out except as medical waste to be burned or what ever they did with that stuff.
73 49 111 01001001
I almost never get sick. Maybe once every two to three years. And when I do, it lasts half as long as with most people. Our immune systems don't want to be laid off, people. They will strike out in odd ways if they don't have real nasties to fight.
Besides that, all this preoccupation with sterility is going to lead to even worse strains of super bugs that even I can't cope with, and then what good will all that eating bugs and playing in dirt have been? I swear, if I ever see anyone using any of that sanitizing crap in public I'm going to knock it out of their hands and cough all over them.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
use a washable keyboard cover http://www.viziflex.com/cartexe/index.asp im sure housekeeping could easily swap out the covers every shift and wash them.
Why can't they dip the keyboards in alcohol, let them dry, and plug them back in?
My experience with cleaning "dirty" keyboards started waaaay back in the day when I spilled a Big Gulp of Coca-Cola into my Commodore-64, the screen instantly went black, and I had one hour until my mother got home. The Commodore got disassembled, washed, cleaned, dried, and reassembled before she got home - there's nothing like adrenaline to make you work quickly!
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
The problem is the environment, not the items in it. Hospitals unfortunately house sick patients with multiply-drug-resistant infections. The antibiotics flow like a mighty river... only the toughest bugs survive (and survive they do!).
There was a recent study (can't recall the journal it was in) where they cultured doctors' neckties... they were able to culture all sorts of nasty, drug-resistant organisms.
I am a physician, and I never wear a tie to work (I won't work somewhere where they force ER docs to wear ties)... I only wear scrubs, and get a new set every day... the old ones get washed before they're worn again. I also wash my hands a hundred times a day, and even clean my stethosope with alcohol (admittedly, brief exposure to alcohol doesn't really sterilize anything... but I feel better doing it... how's that for being dogmatic?).
Infection spread is a reality in the hospital. You try to prevent it, but it happens, and off of ANY surface, not just keyboards. Unfortunately, these bugs are out in the community as well... most of the MRSA I see walks right in the front door, often in young people who have never spent a day in the hospital.
And if you're one of those folks who always insists on some antibiotics to "knock out this cold," then you're contributing to this problem.
Don't get mad at me when I refuse to prescibe antibiotics for your viral illness. This is going to sound patronizing, but it's actually for your own good, and helps keep the drugs effective for when you really need them.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
dont care how "super" the pathogen is, an autoclave will kill it.
I know I'm being pedantic, but autoclaves don't kill everything... they don't "kill" prions. Then again, prions aren't actually bugs. However, I don't think prions hide out in your keyboard... unless you've been eating people's brains raw and the didn't wash your hands before using your keyboard.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Step 1: USe industrial sealed membrane keyboards. They'll last forever, and are water proof. Need to disinfect? Spray with Lysol or scrubbing bubbles. There is a reason why membrane keyboards are also used on machines that produce food products. You can clean them!
Step2: While I can't see the CPU fans, etc, not collecting anything already NOT in the environmet, if you are worried about them, go for a fanless relatively sealed system.
The purity of the water should also be taken into account. Distilled water doesn't conduct electricity. However, I'm sure it would collect stuff from contact with the internal circuit boards and such, but perhaps not enough to conduct electricity well enough to short anything out.
Had to look that one up.
:
From
Acronym Definition
MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
MRSA - Market Research Society of Australia
MRSA - Materiel Readiness Support Activity (US Army)
MRSA - Midland Railway Signalman's Association
MRSA - Seaman Apprentice, Machinery Repairman Striker (Naval Rating)
I guess you were talking about the first one.
My other UID is 1337
You are correct about pathogens and immunity, however allergies are quite different than pathogens. The immune system fights pathogens, however the immune system is what causes allergies. They are an overreaction to foreign sustances entering the body.
Growing up around allergens often causes allergies. The body, having been genetically predisposed to certain allergies will cause the immune system to attack allergens that it comes into contact with.
Allergies are caused by the immune system, rather than prevented by it. Thus, it is better for children not to be exposed to possible allergens until later in childhood.
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
One has to be much more careful about that now, since eggs are more likely to contain salmonella due to the way they are handled.
Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the *shell* that contains the Salmonella?
A bucket? That guy was real lucky. Im a Dell Cert. Tech. at an East Coast Uni., and we get alot of work that is basically swapping every component of a laptop down because someone spilled water/beer/vodka/puke all over their laptop and fried it (whether it was on or off). And yup, the expensive dell warranties cover it, as long as you don't mention the water factor...