Posted on 11/18/2007 2:29:45 AM PST by 60Gunner
Here's a quick guide to preventing the transmission and contraction of the "new" (as of 1955) strain of adenovirus.
1: Cover your coughs and sneezes. Nobody wants to share what's in your snot. I don't care if you are wearing an angora sweater from Niemann-Marcus. Deposit your snot on your sleeve so I don't have to share your private hell.
2: Wash your hands. We've gone there. See my previous post.
3: When in doubt, mask up. They do it in China. Ever wonder why they have so many Chinese?
ER Nursing ping!
Hot Brunettes? : )
Thanks for the sound advice. I always forward your posts. You really should be doing these professionally.
[Ever wonder why they have so many Chinese?]
Because they wore masks on their face but nothing on their ‘johnsons”?
ROTFLMAO!
While I applaud the fact that you raised peoples health consciousness in general. to suggest that a simple protocol is “the solution” is a bit lame.
For two reasons:
This is simply not that much of a threat, in comparison regular flu kills 30,000+ people per year, and
If somethings gonna get ya, it’s gonna get ya. The flu of 1918 was so virulent and crippling that it was not unusual for people to wake up in the morning feeling fine and having no symptoms and to end up dead by midnight.
If people want to stress over adenovirus, odds are they will die of stress before the cold.
I would add; stop shaking hands. I know it’s hard not to at church and other places. Simply say, “I have a bad cold” when offered a hand.
So 57 years have passed with this virus growing and growing in strength. None of the 3 things mentioned have worked to stop the virus.
We are all aware of the fact that we don't have a cure for this virus. As a matter of fact, we don't have a cure for any virus at present.
So it doesn't make any difference if you cough in a snotty kleenex or sleeve, the virus spreads as soon as one coughs as it is airborn. A virus goes through a kleenex or sleeve.
Washing your hands will help but it won't prevent a virus from spreading.
Wearing a mask will not prevent a virus from spreading. Does China have less viruses than the US? A virus will go through a mask.
A virus can't be seen under a regular microscope like bacteria as it is too small. A virus has to have a special microscope. Masks, gloves and condoms will not prevent a virus from spreading. They may help but that is all.
One of the main things to do is "stay away from crowds" especially enclosed crowds such as airplanes. This is an airborn virus.
I still think that if a pandemic occurs, the single major form of transmission will be when you get handed a few dollar bills in your change at Wendys.
You might be right.
Ooops....sorry....I just sneezed on my computer screen.....
Now ya’ll have the virus....
A virus does not fly through the air on its own. It's carried in respiratory droplets.
Masks will catch a lot of these droplets. Further if you cough in your sleeve, you will be less like to spread those droplets than if you cough/sneeze in someone's face or in your hand that, unlike your sleeve, will touch doorknobs, computer keyboards etc.
The concept of hygeine has gone down the crapper in the last 30 years.
People used to cover coughs routinely, that is only now being taught to kids in school, and a multitude of people I have seen--all over the country--do not. They will cough in your face if you just stand there and let them.
Amazing too, is the number of digital nostril reamers out there, nothing like direct injection, nor spreading the removed mucous wherever. If you really want to know, watch drivers in traffic. They all touch the door handles wherever they are going, elevator buttons, wall corners, door jambs, etc.
I have even seen kids pick at zits in fast food joints with those plastic gloves on. (No, thanks, no food today, just checking the menu.)
With the advent and widespread use of antibiotics at least a generation has become terribly lax, and those selfsame people who spray everything down with germicidal whatevers will take a couple of pills to mask their symptoms and go to work, send the sick kid to school or day care, and think nothing of it.
Unless and until we have an epiphany about basic sanitation, we will be open to the ministrations of the next batch of antibiotic resistant pathogens that comes down the pike--and they are already here.
They may not be widespread now, but if we (collectively) do not head them off at the pass, they will be.
These simple measures can help prevent that, but they help raise conciousness, too: that germs (bacteria and virii) still kill. They also help buy time to find the next line of pharmacological defense.
There is no cause for panic, just unfailing vigillance, vigillance which becomes habitual.
It was only a few generations back when a small cut on the hand or foot could be fatal. We will either develop new strains of antibiotics and antivirals or we will be back there again.
BTW, a properly worn N95 mask will stop most virii and the droplets they ride in on...unlike much of the junk out there.
“Ooops....sorry....I just sneezed on my computer screen.....
Now ya’ll have the virus...”
Not to worry—I’ve got anti-virus software!
;)
I have a compromised immune system through transplant. I will flying to California from the east coast in two weeks. I am considering wearing a mask the entire time. I have been using the types of masks you can buy at Home Depot, would you recommmend a different type?
The concept of hygeine has gone down the crapper in the last 30 years.
I read on FR a few months ago that, during the late 60s/early 70s a lot of nasty stuff ran through the communes. Practices such as “community toothbrushes” didn’t help.
Still, doing simple things can certainly reduce the risks. Scientifically, this is truth. And the truth shall set us free: from panic, fear, anxiety, and powerlessness.
It isn't so much that the virus has gotten stronger; it is more accurate to say that like all viruses, adenovirus mutates and by so doing can slip through the body's antigenic response. It's sort of a microbiological war going on between our bodies and nature: a virus invades our bodies, our bodies create measures to defend against it, the virus develops countermeasures to defeat our measures, and our bodies develop counter-countermeasures, and so on, and so on.
So while on the face of it it seems that no matter how our bodies may try to defend against it, a virus will only mutate and defeat our bodies. But on the flip side, this is really an amazing thing: a virus may mutate and defeat our bodies, but our bodies are able to develop countermeasures against the virus. It's worked for eons, and it's pretty cool.
And it does make a difference to cough on one's sleeve or sneeze into a tissue. The reason for this is that in order to make us sick, there have to be enough viruses involved in the invasion to break through our defenses. (This is called viral load.) Covering your cough or sneeze captures a huge number of viruses, thus reducing the number of viruses released into the air. Remember- fewer viruses released means lower viral load, which increases the likelihood that our bodies will be able to throw the invaders back at the sea.
Mind, some viruses are more virulent than others- that means that a smaller viral load is required to blast through the body's defenses.
A virus is like a soldier, and its virulence can be likened to the relative skill of the soldier. You have your basic grunt light infantry virus- not all that virulent and thus easy to defeat unless deployed in very large numbers. And then you have the paratrooper, Ranger, Special Forces, Delta Force, and SEAL virus- the more virulent ones that can do the job with fewer fellow viruses required.
You see, it's all about preventing a sufficient number of viruses from getting ashore. The more virulent the bug, the greater the degree of protection required. You have viruses all over you right now. But they won't kill you because you wash them off your skin with soap and water, flush them out of your body with the water you drink, and keep them from getting into a breach in the defenses by putting a bandaid over your cut.
Your basic premise (that covering coughs and sneezes, wearing a mask, and washing your hands won't prevent a virus from spreading) may be correct. But I would respectfully submit to you that your fatalism is somewhat misplaced, since these precautions have been proven over and over again to be effective in preventing the transmission of a sufficient number of viruses to make someone else sick.
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