Outwitting the germ

"It's more complicated than you might think, washing your hands without touching the sink."

"The Ladies Room," Cosy Sheridan

To most of us, it's a ketchup dispenser at the local diner, primed for squirting; to germaphobes it's potentially hours of puking, headaches and two miserable days in bed.

To most of us, it's a paper-towel dispenser in a public bathroom, ready for some furious yanking; to germaphobes, it's a test of elbow dexterity.

To most of us, it's a remote control for the hotel-room TV, available for serious scrolling; to germaphobes, it's the clicker not to be flickered.

Clearly, not everybody sees germs in the same way, including singer/songwriter Sheridan. But are most of us too lax, or are germaphobes just a bit too whack?

The answer, not surprisingly, lies somewhere in between, says Jane Harper, infection prevention specialist with the Minnesota Department of Health. "Focusing on hand hygiene is your No. 1 line of defense," she said. "The germs are smarter these days, so there is more reason to want to avoid them."

But even with germs having adapted over the years, some people take the phobia part too far. Harper, a strong advocate of using alcohol-based hand wipes such as Purel, chuckled at an anecdote about diners using them between each course. "I mean, you've been eating your own food."

And Harper draws the line completely at people wearing masks in public as a preventive measure. "They do not protect you. They do not have a tight seal around them. You're breathing in around the sides of it," she said, adding that the purpose of masks is to keep germs in. "A mask is for someone who is quite ill and can't contain the cough."

But Harper stresses that germs lurk everywhere, especially at a time of year when we're primarily in confined spaces. The virus that causes the flu, for example, can hang in the air for a considerable time after an infected person sneezes, especially inside dry, heated buildings. Again, these bugs are smart; they know more than their great-great-grandparents did about how to get (or hang) around.

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"An elbow to open and close the stall door

There's more germs on the handle than there are on the floor."

"The Ladies Room"

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Among the everyday places where danger lurks:

• That ketchup dispenser might be carrying norovirus (a k a the Norwalk virus, or the plain ol' stomach flu), which is highly contagious. You also can pick it up off bathroom doorknobs and faucet handles.

• Changing the litter box can expose you to toxoplasmosis, a parasite in cat feces. Most susceptible are pregnant women -- who should be off the hook from cleaning up cat poop.

• Shaking hands can expose you to, oh, about 1,500 germs. Maybe more if it's a female hand, which carries more germs than a man's, according to a recent University of Colorado study. (That might explain the demise of the gallant European custom of kissing the lady's hand.)

At home, the kitchen sink is worse than the bathroom sink; a garbage can contains a lot more than just refuse, and a cleaning aid such as a sponge or dishcloth is far from clean.

Out and about, ATMs dispense more than money; playground equipment could be renamed "jungle germs"; elevator buttons can really put you down. But the demise of pay phones has eliminated a major germ hangout.

Still, staying well is mostly about the hands, washing them more often than you think and keeping them away from your nose, mouth and ears. Oh, and get a flu shot. It won't protect you from all the germs, but coupled with clean hands and covering coughs, it can make navigating this germy world a lot safer.

Bill Ward • 612-673-7643 Karen Youso • 612-673-4407