Keep viruses out of your travel plans

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November 26, 2009

By Bill Kettler

Mail Tribune

Worried that your sister's kids will bring you a case of swine flu over the holiday weekend? Or that Aunt Mae will show up for Thanksgiving dinner with her famous Jell-O salad and a raging cold?

Swine flu spread rapidly last summer as people from infected areas took the virus with them when they went on the road. While the rate of infection has fallen dramatically over the past few weeks in Southern Oregon and across the state, there's concern that travelers could spread the virus again.

Public health experts say you can defend yourself against the viruses that spread colds and influenza. You may look a little silly following some of their recommendations, or get razzed by your brother-in-law, but if a little precaution helps you avoid being sick for weeks, who cares what people think?

Mel Kohn, Oregon's director of public health, notes that viruses are spread by microscopic moisture droplets spread by coughs and sneezes. Those particles can live for hours on doorknobs, countertops, and other surfaces.

You could clean those surfaces with bleach but then you'd have to carry around a bleach bottle for every door you opened. It's easier to clean the hands and fingers that turn the doorknobs, open the doors and generally come in constant contact with all kinds of infection sources.

That's why doctors and nurses keep telling us to wash our hands frequently, or carry hand sanitizers — and use them.

The sanitizers should be alcohol-based. Most of the ones readily available in stores are more than 60 percent alcohol in a gel base. Some include a bit of glycerin or other agent to soften skin dried by the alcohol.

Even if your hands are filthy, your skin keeps viruses at bay. They need an easy portal to wreak havoc on you, and the moist membranes in your eyes and nose are the prime pathways. Keep your hands away from your face and you're less likely to "auto-innoculate," as the docs say.

That's often harder than it sounds. Most of us are constantly rubbing our eyes, touching our nose or scratching our chin.

The Oregon Public Health Division notes that crowded airplanes, buses and trains are some of the easiest places to get infected. They suggest carrying small bottles of sanitizer and using them on arm rests or other surfaces.

Just make sure if you're flying that your sanitizer container is no larger than 3 ounces.

If you come down with something, do your family and friends a favor and stay home. You probably won't have much fun while you're sick, and you're less likely to make someone else feel miserable.

If you have to go out, learn to sneeze and cough into your sleeve. It's not that hard — just different.

Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail bkettler@mailtribune.com.

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