We're the Problem, We're the “Cure”

I think your editorial (Preventable Diseases on My Mind and Hands, Jan/Feb 05) misconstrues the data. Studies about hand washing and the spread of communicable diseases have to do with ways to prevent health care workers from contracting disease and secondarily from cross-contaminating their patients. The overwhelming conclusion of these studies was that the single most effective way for health care workers to prevent themselves from getting sick was for each person to wash their own hands before eating, rubbing their eyes or face, or otherwise contacting their own mucous membranes. It follows that touching other peoples' mucous membranes would similarly affect the transfer of disease organisms. All those other measures, washing doorknobs, air filters, etc., are not preventive. You must be responsible for your own health.

There are so many ways we spread germs around our environment that the only effective measure is to stop the introduction into our own bodies. Have you ever noticed how many times you (or others) reflexively lick your fingers as you read a document and turn the pages? Or rub your eyes? Or your nose? Or your mouth or lips? You have just introduced whatever was on your fingers into your system.

Further, airborne communicable diseases are few (Legionnaire's and TB are two). Colds and flu are spread by contact, and coming down with a cold after a plane flight is far more likely to be the result of your own inadvertent actions than the air quality. Also, the indiscriminate use of low-level antibiotics, as in antimicrobial coatings, is a sure-fire way to quickly produce resistant strains of micro-organisms while doing next to nothing to prevent the transmission of disease.
Tom Robinson
SSF

More CAD tips

Readers might like to know that in addition to 3DCADtips.com (Jan/Feb Medical Design), the Web site www.b2-design.biz/tuts.html also provides tutorials for a couple engineering programs. Other sites of interest include mcadforums.com/forums, cbliss.com/inventor, and kwikmcad.com
Bill Bogan
B2 Design