The problem with trying to ward off cold viruses is that, when you're out in public, you have no idea what people with a virus have touched. What's worse, most respiratory infections are caught from close contact with someone in your home, especially a school-age child.
Plus, surfaces in your home are readily contaminated too, so when one person — or a visitor — is carrying a virus, everyone in your household is at risk.
There's been some research into how easily cold viruses can be transferred from ordinary surfaces to fingertips. In one study, researchers asked 15 adults with colds that rhinoviruses (which cause about half of all colds) caused to stay overnight in a hotel, then tested 10 hard surfaces in each room. Of the total 150 sites tested, 35 per cent were contaminated with cold viruses. The most contaminated surfaces were door handles, pens, light switches, television remote controls, faucets and telephones.
The researchers then asked five volunteers to touch the light switches, telephone keypads or handsets and tested their fingertips for rhinoviruses. When the tests were made an hour after contamination, the subjects' fingertips had become contaminated 60 per cent of the time. Even 18 hours later, contamination was found in a third of the tests.
The researchers concluded that people with colds frequently contaminate surfaces in their environment, and that others can then pick up cold viruses during the course of normal daily activities with relative ease.
Research confirms that hand-washing and frequent disinfection of surfaces are the most effective ways to protect yourself against colds and flu.
When researchers ran a campaign promoting hand-washing and giving out hand-sanitizer gel among students in university dorms, they found that these students had fewer episodes of colds and flu and missed fewer classes as a result, compared with students who were not part of the campaign.
According to a Canadian study, using a disinfectant spray on a surface contaminated with cold viruses reduced the virus counts by more than 99.99 per cent in just one minute.
So some of the best ways to avoid the cold and flu are the simplest, like keeping surfaces disinfected and regularly washing your hands. Be sure to put these two methods into practice to help to avoid catching something this cold and flu season.
