Prevent the Spread of Germs

1
Prevent the Spread of Germs

• David Bustamante
• Meghan Lambourne

2
Did You Know?

• Germs are the oldest living things on Earth. They
  have been around for more than 3 billion years.
• A cough travels at 60 miles per hour
• A sneeze travels at 100 miles per hour and can
  send germs up to 30 feet away.
• Only 68 of adults wash their hands after using
  public restrooms.

3
Fast Facts

• The most common place for germs to lurk in a
  school is the drinking fountain spigot. Studies
  have shown that the bacteria and mold count on a
  drinking fountain spigot is 1,000 times greater
  than the bacteria and mold count on a toilet
  seat.
• Nearly 22 million school days are lost each year
  to the common cold alone.
• Some bacteria and viruses can live from 20
  minutes up to 2 hours or more on surfaces like
  doorknobs, cafeteria tables, and desks.

4
The Flu

• Spread from person to person through coughs and
  sneezes.
• Occurs when a person
• is exposed to droplets from the cough or sneeze
  of an infected person
• touches droplets, nose drainage or saliva from an
  infected person, or a soiled object, and then
  touches ones own (or someone elses) nose,
  mouth, or eyes before their washing hands

5
What Can You Do

• Encourage students, faculty and staff to wash
  hands when hands are visibly soiled and after
  touching objects such as tissues or surfaces
  soiled with saliva or nose drainage.
• An alcohol-based hand rub can be used when soap
  and water are not available when and hands are
  not visibly soiled
• Alcohol-based hand rubs are not recommended when
  hands are visibly soiled.
• When using alcohol-based hand rub, thoroughly rub
  hands together until the alcohol has dried.

• Teach students the proper handwashing technique.
• Remind students to
• Cover their nose and mouth with a tissue when
  they cough or sneeze to throw the tissue away
  after they use it.
• Wash hands often, epsecially after they cough or
  sneeze.
• Remind them not to touch their eyes, mouth, or
  nose.

6
What You Can Do Cont.

• Make sure all sink locations, restrooms, and
  diaper changing areas are stocked with soap and
  paper towels or working hand dryers.
• Ensure each classroom is supplied with
  alcohol-based hand rub when sinks for washing
  hands are not readily accessible.
• Make sure tissues are available in all classrooms
  and rooms where meals are provided.

• Clean frequently touched surfaces, toys, and
  commonly shared items daily and when visible
  soiled.
• Encourage parents of sick students to keep them
  home and away from others until the student has
  been without a fever for 24 hours. Similarly,
  encourage sick faculty and staff to stay home.

7
Hand-washing Technique

• To help protect against the spread of germs and
  exposure to infectious materials, wash your hands
  before and after
• Eating
• Smoking
• Work
• Using the bathroom
• Putting in contact lenses
• Applying makeup
• After coughing or sneezing
• Hand washing is the most important procedure for
  preventing the spread of infections.
• The mechanical action of washing and drying
  removes most of the transient skin bacteria.

8
Hand-Washing Technique Cont.

• Hand washing with plain soap (detergents) is
  effective in removing most transient microbial
  flora.
• Components of good hand washing include the
  following
• Adequate amount of soap
• Rubbing the hands together to create friction for
  15 seconds, which is the time required to sing
  Happy Birthday
• Rinsing hands under running water
• Drying hands with a clean towel

9
Head Lice

• Head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) are
  parasitic insects that live in the hair and scalp
  of humans.
• Can infest anyone, regardless of personal
  hygiene.
• Each year, 6 to 12 million people worldwide get
  head lice.
• Head lice outbreaks occur often in schools and
  group settings.

• Pre-school- and elementary-school-aged children
  and their families are infested most often.
• Girls get head lice more often than boys.
• Usually treatable with lice-killing shampoos and
  crème rinses. However, it is an increasing
  problem in infectious disease because
  lice-killing medicines are becoming less
  effective.

10
The Spread of Head Lice

• Head lice are spread by coming into close contact
  with an already infested person. In children,
  contact is common during play, while riding the
  school bus, and during classroom activities in
  which children sit in groups close to each other.
• Wearing infested clothing, such as hats, coats,
  scarves, sports uniforms, or hair ribbons.
• Using infested brushes, combs, or towels.
• Lying on a bed, couch, pillow, carpet, or stuffed
  animal that has been contaminated.
• Most commonly found behind the ears and at the
  back of the neck.

11
Prevent the Spread of Head LiceWhat Schools Can
Do!

• Watch for signs of lice, such as frequent head
  scratching and irritability.
• Teach students not to share combs, brushes,
  scarves, hair ribbons, helmets, headphones, hats,
  towels, bedding, clothing, or other personal
  items.
• Provide separate storage areas (cubbies or
  lockers) and widely spaced coat hooks for
  clothing and other personal articles.
• Assign sleeping mats to only one child and store
  mats separately.
• Wash dress-up clothes and play costumes between
  use by different children. During an outbreak,
  costumes should not be used in the classroom.

12
Prevent the Spread of Head LiceWhat Schools Can
Do!

• It is not necessary for a student to stay home
  from school.
• It is not necessary to have routine head lice
  screenings.
• Letters notifying other parents of head lice
  cases have not been found to restrain the spread
  but often provoke itching and anxiety.
• If a student does contract head lice, inform the
  parents/guardians and other close contacts of the
  student.
• Remember!! Avoid direct contact with a person
  who has lice, their clothing, and their personal
  belongings.

13
Whooping Cough

• A highly contagious disease caused by the
  bacteria Bordetella pertussis.
• It is spread by droplets from coughing and
  sneezing to 70-100 of susceptible household
  contacts and 50-80 of susceptible school
  contacts.

• Symptoms vary for different ages but initial
  symptoms are usually similar to a cold.
• Severe cases develop sudden attacks of repetitive
  coughing and often a characteristic whoop as
  the person gasps for breath. However, not all
  cases get the whoop.
• Vomiting often follows a coughing spasm.
• A person with whooping cough is infectious for up
  to three weeks after they start coughing.
• The cough may last for months.

14
Whooping Cough Cont.

• People become immune either through pertussis
  immunisation or by catching the disease itself,
  but protection is not life long and begins to
  wane after 6-10 years.
• If a student has whooping cough, he or she should
  not attend school for 21 days from onset of
  coughing or until they have received at least the
  first 5 days of a course of antibiotics.
• If a student has been coughing for more than 21
  days, they are no longer infectious and can go
  back to school.
• Household members and close contacts of someone
  with whooping cough may also be infectious.
  Unimmunised siblings under seven years of age and
  unimmunised close contacts must be excluded from
  school for 14 days from the last exposure to
  infection.

15
Community Acquired Bacterial Infections

• Recently, many sports-related resistant bacterial
  infections have been reported from both gyms and
  locker rooms.
• Bacterial skin infections have been reported from
  various football teams, fencing clubs, and
  college locker rooms.
• There has been an increase in the number of
  reported cases in Santa Cruz County of people
  contracting bacterial skin infections through
  health clubs.
• Outbreaks amongst inmates across the U.S.

16
CA-MRSA

• Infects healthy people outside of the health-care
  setting.
• It is susceptible to some oral antibiotics.
• Currently 1 in 7 people infected fails outpatient
  treatment and requires hospitalization.
• Spreads by direct contact and sharing of
  equipment.
• Primary defense is frequent hand washing.

• CA-MRSA cases are on the rise.
• 25-30 of the population harbors nonresistant
  bacterium in their nose. This bacterium varies
  only slightly from CA-MRSA, and has been linked
  as a possible source of transmission.
• 2 million people harbor CA-MRSA in their nose.
• A rub of the nose and shaking of hands without
  washing can spread CA-MRSA.

17
Measures to Decrease CA-MRSA in Athletes

• Cover all wounds
• If participating in a contact sport, any skin
  lesions must be completely and properly covered.
• If wound cannot be completely covered, consider
  excluding all athletes with potentially
  infectious skin rashes or wounds from practice or
  play until the lesions are healed or can be
  completely covered.
• Make sure the wounds stay covered during practice
  or play. Re-check frequently, especially if the
  athlete is sweating.

• Instruct the importance of showering with soap
  and hot water after working out.
• Educate athletes about germ transmission through
  sharing towels, clothing, razors (creams and
  gels), and equipment.
• Cover shared equipment , like weight benches,
  with a clean towel and provide sanitary wipes to
  clean equipment after each use.
• Facilities need to implement regular cleaning
  schedules of showers, lockers, whirlpools, and
  exercise equipment.

18
Good Resources

• The Scrub Club WWW.scrubclub.org
• Fun educational animated Webisode
• Six key steps to proper hand washing
• Interactive games activities
• Educational materials for teachers
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  http//www.cdc.gov/flu/school/
• Posters and flyers
• Cover Your Cough materials
• The Magic School Bus http//content.scholastic.com
  /browse/article.jsp?id1650
• Book The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie
• Activities

19
Sources

• Head Lice. Directors of Health Promotion and
  Education. http//www.astdhpphe.org/infect/lice.ht
  ml. As found on 3-29- 07.
• Headlice Factsheet for Schools Wired for
  Healthhttp//www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/
  wfhfactsheets/WFHheadlice.htm. As found on
  3-29-97.
• Preventing the Spread of Influenza (the Flu) in
  Child Care Settings Guidance for Administrators,
  Care Providers, and Other Staff. Centers for
  Disease Control and Prevention.
  http//www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncont
  rol/childcaresettings.htm. As found on 3-29-07.
• Protecting Children from Flu. Centers for
  Disease Control. http//www.cdc.gov/flu/school/.
  As found on 3-29-07.
• Pertussis (whooping cough) the facts.
  Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology Surveillance.
  Victorian Government Health Information.
  http//www.health.vic.gov.au/ideas/diseases/pert_f
  acts. As found on 4-3-07.
• Scott, S. (2006). Preventing Community-acquired
  Bacterial Infections. Health and Fitness Journal,
  10, 33-35.
• Stopping Germs at Home, Work and School. Centers
  for Disease Control and Prevention.
  http//www.cdc.gov/germstopper/home_work_school.ht
  m. As found on 3-29-07.