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With some questionable health advice being posted by your friends on Facebook, politicians arguing about the state of the American healthcare system and a new medical study being summarized in just a sentence or two on TV---that seems to contradict the study you heard summarized yesterday---it can be overwhelming to navigate the ever-changing landscape of health news.

Most Cell Phones Are Teeming with Germs

Flickr user Steve Jurvetson (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

What would we do without our smartphones? We can look up news and weather in seconds, access friends via social media, take pictures, and cover them in bacteria!

Most mobile phones are teeming with germs.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC, states the kinds of illnesses you could get from germs on a phone are the types you get from touching surfaces and then touching your eyes, nose and mouth. You can pick up colds, flu, and gastrointestinal and stomach illnesses when you pick up your phone. A lot of people let children play with their phones—so kids can acquire---and deposit--- germs this way too.

Even healthcare workers have had to change their phone use because studies have found mobile phones usage in hospital settings poses the risk of transmission of a variety of bacterial agents including multidrug-resistant pathogens. However, mobile phones of patients, patients’ companions and visitors represent a higher risk for pathogen colonization than those of healthcare workers.

To prevent getting sick from your phone, APIC suggests washing your hands, avoiding taking your phone into the bathroom, periodically wiping your phone with an alcohol based wipe, covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze and avoiding resting your phone in germy places like a grocery cart.

Resources:
http://consumers.site.apic.org/infection-prevention-in/everywhere-else/cell-phones-and-germs/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4332273/

Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Middle & Secondary Education. She writes for special publications of The Southeast Missourian and is a certified Community Health Worker.
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