Prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

Submitted by Susan Garbett

With the advent of my usual end-of -the-semester cold, I was reminded of the importance of basic hygiene measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. My summer school schedule demanded my presence on one of the days when I was quite contagious with sneezes and coughing. Since I was also required to wear a surgical mask because of the laboratory assignment that day, I ended up wearing masks the entire day to contain my cold as well. Others in the building did look at me with puzzlement, but thus far I have not seen evidence that my cold was shared with others. One of my co-workers suggested that I was protecting my computer from a virus. This technique is one example of ways to prevent the spread of contagious disease. A friend of mine has done this for years in her home. Whenever she has a cold, she wears a scarf around her neck and masks her nose and mouth as much as possible. Another way to protect others and ourselves is to wash our hands frequently. In nursing, we teach students to wash their hands before and after every patient contact. In our own busy lives, this can equate to washing our hands before and after eating, before preparing food, after going to the bathroom, after blowing our noses, after brushing our hair. Hand washing is one of the best ways to remove transient bacteria which may either spread disease or infect areas of broken skin. Habits of hand washing begin as small children. At health fairs we have tried to encourage the washing of hands in children through the use of black light and glow germ (a product that shows up under the black light). We have children put on the glow germ and then wash their hands. Afterwards they can see the areas that are missed. New products are out now that allow hand washing without water--most of them are alcohol based and can be used camping or on road trips. In all summer activities, let us use basic prevention measures to protect ourselves.

Faculty/Staff Bulletin--May 21, 1998