The mouse bites back
By Jason Slater in Reader
Posted in Health and Safety on February 27, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I was watching a programme on television last night which put certain foods to the test as to the claims they make on their packaging. This has little to do with what I am writing about except for a brief section where areas of a typical house were swabbed and tested for signs of bacteria. Areas such as the bathroom, toilet, kitchen and home computer were tested and from the results it would seem that the house was reasonably clean and pretty much passed the tests except for one thing - the home computer mouse - it turned out this mouse had traces of the MRSA superbug following one of the children’s recent visit to a hospital. Just in case you missed it - let me say that again … there were traces of MRSA on the mouse!
Now, I don’t want to be a scaremonger but how many times have you used a mouse that belongs to someone else? In case you might be curious as to what MRSA is then pay a visit to the NHS Direct website and in particular to the MRSA section at:
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=252#
The BBC website also has an interesting section called “Should I worry about…MRSA” at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/shouldiworryabout/mrsa.shtml
The programme swiftly moved on but it got me thinking - as I type this post entry I am sat in a cafe within a University campus using a public computer that is probably used by dozens of different people each and every day. I am also drinking a nice hot latte and eating a pastry so I wonder - from mouse to finger to mouse - what on earth could I be subjecting my body to?
Should I be taking anti-bacterial wipes around with me every where I go and making sure I clean the keyboard and mouse before I use it? Or should I not worry about it and simply enjoy my pastry while Gooping? Oh and just in case you might be wondering the idea of carrying around anti-bacterial wipes has nothing to do with the fact that the company I work for produces, amongst other things, computer cleaning wipes!
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