Microbes are the Big Enemy

The recent story about the girl who contracted the brain eating amoeba from a water park should give anyone pause.  Here is what you must consider anytime you touch, drink, inhale, or immerse yourself in water, dust, or simple things like door knobs.  The residing microbes on any of these surfaces can be deadly given the right environment or weakness in your immune system.    Here is a list of do and don't do suggestions.

Do

1.  After you pump gas wipe your hands with a some antibacterial.  I usually carry child wipes that have alcohol or something like antibacterial wipes so that if I have touched anything that is suspect I will clean my hands.

2.  Wash your hands regularly even if it just a rinse in water with some hand rubbing agitation while rinsing them.  It will cut way down on the levels of bacteria on your hands.

3.  Stay away from places that exude filth such as public bars with overflowing toilets or stadiums.


Don't Do

1.  Don't swim in lakes, ponds, streams, or rivers and whatever you do don't go underwater.

2.  Don't eat at restaurants but if you must do so stick with items that are hard to spoil.  I never get things with mayonnaise at restaurants, or shellfish, but that is just me.

3.  I had a grandfather who was at times a chef and he always said stay away from stews and soups when you eat out.  Most of these can be leftovers from prior customers.

4.  Don't stay in hotels but if you must remember that the sheets may have been used the night before by a previous guest.  That is one of the dirty secrets of the hotel business.  I used to carry a sleeping bag with me and slept on top of the bed.  Of course bedbugs could still the be big worry there.

5.  If you spend any time in a doctor's office or hospital go home and shower and wash your clothes.  The disease in hospitals is everywhere and your presence there a only exposes you this risk.

6.  Don't make out with someone you don't have some serious knowledge of their background.  Needless to say this goes double for sexual relations.

7.  Don't share liquids with others by using the same glass or water bottle.  I prefer to drink beer from the bottle so I don't have to worry about bar methods of cleaning glasses.  You might be sipping from a glass previously slobbered on by someone with any of the saliva present diseases.  HIV, HEP_C, HERPES, and many more.

8.  If you must shake hands find a way to wash your hands shortly afterword.  Who knows where those hands have been.

Good luck and stay clean and healthy.