Keyboards are Havens for Super Bugs 591
Techguy666 writes "Gee, this is a suprise. Researchers have found that keyboards harbor bacteria and super-germs. This is particularly interesting this time because this research noted that there is a lot of computer use in hospitals and they're finding it really difficult to sterilize them."
Easy one: Wash it! (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.icintracom.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=4564
Now don't say that they couldn't have thought of it too (I mean that, don't say it).
The touchstream is the perfect solution (Score:5, Interesting)
I have one, you can clean the entire surface with windex or lysol. It uses E-field sensing so does not have the drawbacks of membrane keyboards and in fact has many advantages over regular keyboards.
Sterilizing Keyboards (Score:5, Interesting)
My immune system getting stronger and stronger... (Score:5, Interesting)
hand washing/cleaning (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Plastic cover (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The touchstream is the perfect solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Laser keyboard (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wiped out by a virulent disease from unsanitary (Score:5, Interesting)
UV Light? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Disposable Keyboards? (Score:3, Interesting)
If a hospital has 1000 keyboards to change every day, that would cost an assload more than just the cost of the keyboards.
Plus, you would have to give the "keyboard exchanger job" full access to all of the hospital. These people would also likely be paid near nothing, so the incentive to steal or even pry goes up.
Bad news broncos. Better solution would be to just implement better cleaning around keyboards (hand sanitizers, etc) to prevent the keyboars from getting uber-dirty in the first place. 1000x cheaper in the long term.
Re:Haven't "keyboard condoms" been around for year (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, the machine was in a filtered enclosure and the monitor had a keyboard condom on it. Problem solved. Dunno why the same thing wouldn't work for hospitals.
Re:The touchstream is the perfect solution (Score:1, Interesting)
Fingerworks, if you're listening, get rid of the current design of the LP! Make it like star trek TNG - a smooth curved surface from one end to the other. DO NOT separate the halves. Also an LCD panel underneath would be nice instead of hardcoding the templates into the unit. I think then the price would be justified.
local pizza joint has already solved this prob. (Score:3, Interesting)
The local pizza joint uses some kind of flat translucent rubber keyboard with no moving parts. It can survive flour, water, or tomato sauce with a quick wipe-off. Although it's an elegent and cheap solution, I'm sure the health care industry will fork over millions of dollars to develop some method of enclosing the ancient PC-XT-AT-whatever connected keyboards they use now to the ancienter host running vaccum tubes under the desk.
Perhaps they could submerge a rubber keyboard in a shallow tray of anit-bacterial hand gel. Your finger tips would rest in 1/4" of gel while you typed. When you were done typing, you could just rub your hands togeather and the gel would evaportate. 'Course, whatever survives that environment would be a mega-super-duper-bug! And then what would we do, submerge our fingers in a shallow tray of weak acid?
This is a problem with telephones as well (Score:4, Interesting)
In the early 90'ies, I worked for a computing department for a university that ran a help desk. They noticed that employees were getting sick all the time. They changed policies, and made everyone who worked the help desk bring their own phone handset, and the illnesses decreased.
The moral of the story is that germs can infect anything we touch, and so don't share things many people need to use. Or buy appropriate hardware / cleaning systems to handle it.
Re:Literal bugs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wiped out by a virulent disease from unsanitary (Score:5, Interesting)
Pathology Lab Computers (Score:5, Interesting)
As a kid, I ate bugs and played in dirt (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides that, all this preoccupation with sterility is going to lead to even worse strains of super bugs that even I can't cope with, and then what good will all that eating bugs and playing in dirt have been? I swear, if I ever see anyone using any of that sanitizing crap in public I'm going to knock it out of their hands and cough all over them.
simple fix (Score:2, Interesting)
I really don't understand this... (Score:3, Interesting)
Why can't they dip the keyboards in alcohol, let them dry, and plug them back in?
My experience with cleaning "dirty" keyboards started waaaay back in the day when I spilled a Big Gulp of Coca-Cola into my Commodore-64, the screen instantly went black, and I had one hour until my mother got home. The Commodore got disassembled, washed, cleaned, dried, and reassembled before she got home - there's nothing like adrenaline to make you work quickly!
steve
Not the problem, folks. (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a recent study (can't recall the journal it was in) where they cultured doctors' neckties... they were able to culture all sorts of nasty, drug-resistant organisms.
I am a physician, and I never wear a tie to work (I won't work somewhere where they force ER docs to wear ties)... I only wear scrubs, and get a new set every day... the old ones get washed before they're worn again. I also wash my hands a hundred times a day, and even clean my stethosope with alcohol (admittedly, brief exposure to alcohol doesn't really sterilize anything... but I feel better doing it... how's that for being dogmatic?).
Infection spread is a reality in the hospital. You try to prevent it, but it happens, and off of ANY surface, not just keyboards. Unfortunately, these bugs are out in the community as well... most of the MRSA I see walks right in the front door, often in young people who have never spent a day in the hospital.
And if you're one of those folks who always insists on some antibiotics to "knock out this cold," then you're contributing to this problem.
Don't get mad at me when I refuse to prescibe antibiotics for your viral illness. This is going to sound patronizing, but it's actually for your own good, and helps keep the drugs effective for when you really need them.
They don't kill prions (Score:3, Interesting)
I know I'm being pedantic, but autoclaves don't kill everything... they don't "kill" prions. Then again, prions aren't actually bugs. However, I don't think prions hide out in your keyboard... unless you've been eating people's brains raw and the didn't wash your hands before using your keyboard.
Industrial Membrane Keyboards (Score:1, Interesting)
Step2: While I can't see the CPU fans, etc, not collecting anything already NOT in the environmet, if you are worried about them, go for a fanless relatively sealed system.
Re:Wiped out by a virulent disease from unsanitary (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not the problem, folks. (Score:3, Interesting)
I was under the impression that rubbing alcohol would dissolve the organic compounds microorganisms use to attach themselves to their environment. So although brief exposure wouldn't kill anything, a bit of scrubbing would physically remove the micro doodles.
MRSA (Score:2, Interesting)
From
Acronym Definition
MRSA - Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
MRSA - Market Research Society of Australia
MRSA - Materiel Readiness Support Activity (US Army)
MRSA - Midland Railway Signalman's Association
MRSA - Seaman Apprentice, Machinery Repairman Striker (Naval Rating)
I guess you were talking about the first one.
Allergies and the Immune System (Score:3, Interesting)
You are correct about pathogens and immunity, however allergies are quite different than pathogens. The immune system fights pathogens, however the immune system is what causes allergies. They are an overreaction to foreign sustances entering the body.
Growing up around allergens often causes allergies. The body, having been genetically predisposed to certain allergies will cause the immune system to attack allergens that it comes into contact with.
Allergies are caused by the immune system, rather than prevented by it. Thus, it is better for children not to be exposed to possible allergens until later in childhood.
Re:My immune system getting stronger and stronger. (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the *shell* that contains the Salmonella?
Re:Wiped out by a virulent disease from unsanitary (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not the problem, folks. (Score:3, Interesting)
A little over a decade or so ago I worked for a year in an RAF hospital as a theatre/CSSD muppet (first job out of school and I loved it). Patients (some or all, I never knew but I think it was mainly those transferred from civilian hospitals) were tested for MRSA. The one time a test was positive a set procedure kicked in and all linens used during the op were burnt, instruments were destroyed, the bedding used by the on call staff was destroyed, and the medics involved in the op were banned from the hospital for 48 hours.
I'm not a medic so don't know how effective any of that was (especially destroying the instruments, I'd have thought our autoclaves down in CSSD were capable of dealing with them quite effectively) but it was the only case we ever had and that came from an external source.
Of course, being military our budget was a little higher than the average hospital :)