Can Swine Flu Bacteria Live on Your Money?

I just read an article that I thought was worth sharing.  http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Travel/Can-You-Catch-Swine-Flu-from-Money/

It said that the swine flu virus can live on a dollar bill for days, especially older bills (since the original ink has some antifungal properties which wear off with use).  Paper currency is passed from one person to another and then to another.   It’s logical!  But how many people think about it?

The bottom line, to me, is the same thing we’ve been hearing a LOT of lately.  Wash your hands OFTEN and/or use a hand sanitizer such as Purell.  This is a case of “better too much than not enough.”  But really, isn’t this something we should ALWAYS do?

While I’m not trying to minimize the heightened awareness of avoiding swine flu, keep in mind that there are only 109 confirmed cases in the United States, right now, whereas the CDC has stated that in the U.S. 200,000 people are hospitalized annually for the regular flu, and 36,000 die of it each year.

I was happy to see that many airports are now taking greater care to sanitize the door knobs and handrails in restaurants.   http://ow.ly/53E9   But wouldn’t it be nice if that became a regular part of their cleaning regimen longterm?

Perhaps, as unnerving as it is to hear the word “pandemic” used daily in the media surrounding swine flu, this will improve our individual habits of washing our hands often, using hand sanitizers, and not touching any part of our face while we’re in a public place since all KINDS of germs are dallying about looking for some nice person upon whom to wreak havoc.  If your nose itches, rub it with the BACK of your hand if you don’t have a kleenex handy as a buffer.

To keep up on the latest info, go to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at http://www.cdc.gov/ or follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cdcemergency.

And be sure to follow ThriftyTraveling.com on Twitter as well!  Go to http://twitter.com/thriftytraveler.


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