Combating the Swine Flu

It seems the Swine Flu Pandemic is everywhere on the news lately. Whether or not is will show it’s face in Richmond is yet to be determined, however here is some information on how it spreads and how to prevent yourself from getting sick. Catching the Flu and Infecting others: Incubation period seems to be 3 to 4 […]

April 27, 2009; 2:23 PM • by vmallonee

It seems the Swine Flu Pandemic is everywhere on the news lately. Whether or not is will show it’s face in Richmond is yet to be determined, however here is some information on how it spreads and how to prevent yourself from getting sick.

Catching the Flu and Infecting others:

Incubation period seems to be 3 to 4 days for this strain (time of exposure to symptoms.) People have the potential to infect others from a day before symptoms develop to seven days after they develop.

Environment the Flu survives in:

 How you get it from surfaces and other objects. This is the result of some experiments carried out at a prominent lab in the U.K.  19 Viruses survived on hard non-porous surfaces (e.g., stainless steel counter, plastic washing-up bowl) for up to 72 hours but only small quantities were detectable beyond 48 hours. In contrast, virus was recovered from soft porous items (e.g., pajamas, handkerchiefs, tissues, magazines) for up to 24 hours, but only small quantities were detectable after 12 hours.

Catching it from a Contaminated Surface:

Once your hands touch a contaminated object the Flu is only active for 5 minutes. During that duration of time you can infect yourself by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. The biggest risk of course is someone coughing or sneezing right onto your face or shaking hands with someone right after they have touched their nose or eyes or sneezed or coughed onto their hands. This is why frequent hand washing is so important.

April 27, 2009 2:23 PM 0