That you support your school getting washable and disinfectable keyboards and mice.

With flu season upon us, the time is now to take action and stay healthy. Be proactive! Wash your hands and your keyboard often.

Help keep your kids healthy this flu season by asking your school to do all they can to keep the students healthy. This can be to implement routine hand washing, keeping hand sanitizer in the classroom or by purchasing washable keyboards and mice for the computer lab.

We are all in this together. Let’s try to keep ourselves, our family and our friends as healthy as possible this flu season.

New York Times:
It sounds so simple as to be innocuous, a throwaway line in public-health warnings about swine flu. But one of the most powerful weapons against the new H1N1 virus is summed up in a three-word phrase you first heard from your mother: wash your hands.

A host of recent studies have highlighted the importance and the scientific underpinning of this most basic hygiene measure. One of the most graphic was done at the University of California, Berkeley, where researchers focused video cameras on 10 college students as they read and typed on their laptops.

The scientists counted the times the students touched their faces, documenting every lip scratch, eye rub and nose pick. On average, the students touched their eyes, noses and lips 47 times during a three-hour period, once every four minutes.

Hand-to-face contact has a surprising impact on health. Germs can enter the body through breaks in the skin or through the membranes of the eyes, mouth and nose.

The eyes appear to be a particularly vulnerable port of entry for viral infections, said Mark Nicas, a professor of environmental health sciences at Berkeley. Using mathematical models, Dr. Nicas and colleagues estimated that in homes, schools and dorms, hand-to-face contact appears to account for about one-third of the risk of flu infection, according to a report this month in the journal Risk Analysis.

 

Washing your keyboard strengthens your hand washing efforts. Get a keyboard that can be washed and disinfected from WETKEYS.com. They have a great selection of cleanable keyboards.

USA Today – Americans are taking swine flu more seriously now than they did last spring, when the emerging pandemic began causing widespread illness and shuttering schools in several states, the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.

The poll of 1,007 adults Wednesday found that one in three people believe they or a family member probably will contract H1NI flu, up from one in five in May. Seventeen percent say they worried yesterday that they would get flu, up from 8% in June. Sixty-one percent now accept the government’s reckoning of swine flu’s risks, up 5% since May. A majority of people, 55%, say for the first time that they will get vaccinated, up 9%.

The risk groups for swine and seasonal influenza differ, research shows; more swine flu cases are concentrated among children and young people.

A Chicago Department of Public Health study of 1,557 cases of swine flu released Thursday by the CDC shows that children ages 5 to 14 had 14 times the infection rate of adults 60 and older.

The number of flu cases continues to increase – stay protected against the flu. Wash your keyboard along with your hands. Washable keyboards can tolerate being fully submerged in cleaning solution, or simply being sprayed with disinfectant. Get a sanitary keyboard to strengthen your hand washing efforts and help eliminate germs this flu season. WETKEYS has a great selection of washable keyboards and mice for any computer user. 

Americans are getting serious about swine flu

CNN reports that as many as 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as a result of medical errors, according to an Institute of Medicine report. Some 99,000 people die each year from infections acquired in the hospital, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Given the dangers lurking in hospitals, we asked several nurses to give us their suggestions about what steps to take to protect yourself and your family.

1. Bring in a list of the medications you’re taking

2. Make sure the hospital gets your name right

3. Ask about every medication they give you

4. Make sure everyone washes hands – In the Consumer Reports survey, 26 percent of the nurses reported observing hand-washing lapses.The National Patient Safety Foundation gives advice on infection in hospitals.

The National Patient Safety Foundation offer advice on preventing infections in hospitals. 

Cleaning a washable keyboard has proven to help stop the spread of infectious diseases. Replacing regular keyboards with cleanable keyboards  is an excellent approach to help prevent the spread of infection in hospitals. 

Nurses offer tips for surviving a hospital stay

Bloomberg — Swine flu sufferers pass the bug to about two other people, fostering its spread, according to the first published study of the pandemic strain’s infectiousness in the Southern Hemisphere.

Researchers in New Zealand and the Netherlands used mathematical modeling to estimate the transmission potential of the new H1N1 strain, also known as swine flu.  The reproduction number in New Zealand is 1.96, meaning that up to 79 percent of people could potentially catch the germ during the epidemic, said Michael Baker, one of the study’s authors.

The pandemic bug appears to be as contagious as seasonal influenza, and is spreading faster among people aged 10 to 45 years, according to the World Health Organization. The severity of the disease ranges from mild symptoms such as sore throat and muscle ache to severe illnesses including pneumonia that can result in death, WHO said.

Further studies are needed to produce more robust reproduction estimates for New Zealand, the authors said. Effective public health interventions, including improved hygiene-related behavior, could stem the spread of the disease, said co-author Nick Wilson.

Mortality rates in developed countries from the current pandemic could be as low as one death out of 10,000 cases, Baker and Wilson said in a separate study earlier this month.

Improving hygiene-related behavior includes sanitizing your keyboard along with hand washing. Infectious diseases can be spread through a dirty keyboard. Keep your keyboard consistently clean – get a washable keyboard. It can be disinfected and fully submerged in cleaning solution. 

Swine Flu Sufferers Pass Bug to at Least Two Others, Study Says

As the Swine Flu made international news, health organizations, such as the CDC,  are continuously emphasizing the importance of hygiene and cleansing.  Hand washing has become the single most important means to prevent the spread of infection.  Hand sanitizer and antimicrobial wipes have been strongly recommended to be used in place of or in addition to hand washing.

 Health and hygiene are also very important to us at WETKEYS.com.  Washable keyboards can be fully-submerged in liquids such as antimicrobial solution and soap and water.  Along with washing your hands,  get a washable keyboard for ultimate protection against the spread of germs and illnesses.

Health and safety represent the WETKEYS mission. We take an urgent public health emergency like the Swine Flu outbreak very seriously. As Swine Influenza continues to spread and the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) work quickly to provide recommendations for Swine Flu Prevention, WETKEYS strongly recommends washing your keyboard and mouse when you wash your hands.

Reports from WHO, the CDC and international medical experts confirm that the path of transmission for swine influenza includes contact surfaces. Dr. Richard Besser, acting head for the CDC, says that as a preventive measure, “I would rather people really focus on hand washing.” In addition, the CDC recommends that people try not to touch surfaces that may be contaminated by the flu virus.

All shared computers are a potential health hazard, particularly if an individual with flu symptoms uses the keyboard and mouse. Washing with hot soapy water or using chemical disinfecting spray may be sufficient to eliminate the threat posed by the swine flu virus on data entry surfaces.

To help keep you safe and healthy, WETKEYS offers the largest selection of washable, sanitary and easy to disinfect keyboards and computer mice – the things you touch all day. WETKEYS products are Your Key to Good Health