cover your mouth

.
.
What's in a cough? 20,000 viruses

Tue May 12, 2009 7:58am EDT
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters)


The next time you cough or sneeze, there is good reason to cover your mouth.

As many as 20,000 viruses are expelled in an average cough, which may be sufficient
to infect many people -- particularly those who are not vaccinated.

Julian Tang, a consultant at Singapore's National University Hospital's Division of Microbiology,
said as many as 3,000 tiny droplets are produced in a standard cough.

Using previous research on influenza viral loads in nasal secretions, and assuming that each
coughed airborne droplet measures between 1 to 5 micrometers in diameter,
that adds up to many, many viruses in a single cough.



"Based on this research and assuming about 3,000 droplets are produced per cough,
this range of influenza viruses produced per cough is about 195 to 19,500," Tang told Reuters.

He added that this figure of 3,000 droplets refers to those that remain suspended in the air
for considerable periods -- long enough to infect people.

"This (3,000) is also the number of droplets estimated to remain suspended in air for long periods --
so-called droplet nuclei. Larger droplets carrying influenza viruses may also be produced during a cough,
but these will fall to the ground relatively quickly and will no longer be considered to be significant
in the airborne transmission of influenza," he said.

With a new H1N1 influenza virus spreading around the world, governments in many countries have
revived advertisements entreating people to observe personal hygiene.

In Indonesia, a slick TV advertisement features a young woman remonstrating a suitor at a
village sing-a-long, telling him to get to a health clinic because "that's not a normal cough."

Aimed at the poorly-educated masses, the adverts are set to a dangdut (traditional pop music) theme
and feature an easy-to-remember slogan and theme song.



Doctors say most airborne flu transmissions occur within a one meter range, although it can also
be transmitted by direct contact with contaminated objects, like toys.

"Wearing masks may well help to reduce the transmission of these infections,
as well as covering the mouth with your hand or a tissue when coughing or sneezing --
simply by using a barrier to prevent dissemination of the virus," Tang said.




link to source

*psshhht* *click*

lately I have noticed I stop in my tracks and go the other way when I see people coughing & sneezing

c/thru wrote:

lately I have noticed I stop in my tracks and go the other way when I see people coughing & sneezing

I agree and I care some of that stuff you put on your hands to clean them. Can't think of what it's called but I keep some with me in the glove-box at all times.

someone just died in NY

KK wrote:

someone just died in NY

i am going to guess that some 23,847 people dies in NY today. people with other ailments or the frail or the old or the very young die of the flu... thousands have had it in some form this year and have done just fine. thank you media, for diverting us once again.

jamesjchrist wrote:

KK wrote:

someone just died in NY

i am going to guess that some 23,847 people dies in NY today. people with other ailments or the frail or the old or the very young die of the flu... thousands have had it in some form this year and have done just fine. thank you media, for diverting us once again.

please do not go introducing logic into these conversations