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Study Gives Whole New Meaning To 'Computer Virus'

Toilet seats were cleaner than keyboards

May 5, 2008
Do you wash your hands after Web surfing? You probably will after reading this.

A study by a British microbiologist suggests computer keyboards and mice can collect lots of germs and transmit them to everyone who uses them. Some of the germs, says scientist James Francis, can be quite harmful – including staph and even E. coli.

A British consumer group hired Francis to conduct the tests. He collected samples from 33 different keyboards. As s means of comparison, he then took swabs from a toilet seat and the door knob of a restroom.

He discovered that the toilet seat was actually cleaner than the keyboards. Four of the keyboards, he says, were potential health hazards. One in particular had five times the level of germs found on the toilet seat.

Health officials say the findings are not all that surprising.

Since most germs are transmitted by hand contact, then it stands to reason that objects that come in contact with many different hands throughout a typical day could be prime means to germ transmission.

In the U.S., health officials have for some time been leery of computer equipment. Earlier this year the Centers for Disease Control and Transmission reported that a virus spread through a Washington, DC elementary school – most likely aided by germ-laden computer keyboards.

The CDC report found that at least one keyboard in a first-grade classroom tested positive for flu germs.

The authors noted that it was the first time they had been able to link the spread of flu germs to computer equipment, but said it was possible computers play a bigger role in the spread of germs than anyone thought.

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