Reducing Transmission of Infections

Reducing the Transmission of Infectious Diseases through Physical Contacting

by D. Wong

www.QiGongunderGod.com

The transmission of infectious diseases can occur through a series of physical contacts as described below. Preventive measures can reduce these transmission risks substantially.

The Buddha school recommends that all people be more aware of these types of contact transmission and take preventive measures as individuals.

Over a long period of time, improving scientific knowledge and improving medical capabilities and improving hygiene practices have already helped together to reduce disease transmission greatly compared to the rates of disease transmission in prior centuries and decades.

In the near future, development and implementation of more safe hygiene practices to better handle these remaining germ transmission issues described below should be very helpful.

Physical contacting can cause some germs to end up in the mouth, in the nose, or in the body’s genital openings. This can cause transmission of many types of infectious diseases including the following:

Respiratory infections which are mostly transmitted by air also such as cold, flu, COVID-19, and SARS.
Digestive tract infections such as yeast, stomach flu (norovirus), H. Pylori (stomach ulcer), and some other bacteria.
Reproductive system infections such as yeast.
Hepatitis infections:
1. Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Hepatitis E.
Infections transmitted by air or by closer contact:
1. Mononucleosis (Epstein-Barr virus)
Other infections which are most often sexually transmitted but which can also be transmitted by other physical contacting:
1. HIV
2. Genital HPV (genital warts) is usually transmitted by direct skin to skin contact, but a small percentage of genital HPV infections are transmitted through physical contacting as described below.

There is definite risk of spread of germs through a series of physical contacts that move germs.

The following examples describe some physical contact issues that can cause germs to be transmitted while people are using shared facilities such as public restrooms, restaurants, and chairs that are used by multiple people.

People tend not to think enough about risks of transferring germs through several physical contacts in series.

About Public Restrooms

As an illustrative example, here is a more detailed description of some germ spreading issues when using public restrooms.

Using toilet stalls in public restrooms can cause a series of physical contacts which can spread germs.

People are usually concerned about the toilet’s seat and top surfaces. People think about cleanliness of the toilet seat and the front top surfaces of the toilet bowl.

A disposable paper shield may be available to be placed on these toilet surfaces. Sometimes, people wipe these surfaces with some toilet paper before using the toilet.

After finishing, this person will put on and adjust their clothes and then exit the toilet stall.

Next, hopefully this person washes their hands thoroughly.

The person then exits from the restroom. Sometimes, the person opens the restroom door’s handle with a paper towel.

That person sometimes thinks that their hands are clean and all is then OK.

The reality is that most people are not thinking enough about contamination from physical contacts while inside a restroom toilet stall.

Here are some contact points in a toilet stall in a public restroom:

The turn knob or a sliding latch control that locks the stall door
The inside door handle for the stall door
Other parts of the toilet stall door that may be touched when opening or closing the door
Toilet flush handle

These contact points in the toilet stall have previously been touched by multiple previous restroom users with contaminated hands after using the toilet. This often contaminates these contact points with one or more of the above types of germs from their contaminated hands.

The next person entering the toilet stall may get contaminated hands by touching these contact points before using the toilet. For a female user, these germs can then be spread from her hands to her genitals by touching the toilet paper and then wiping the genital area.

A user with contaminated hands can also touch and contaminate part of their clothing such as belt buckle or pants buttons or other personal items such as a purse or cell phone. Parts of the person’s clothing and their other items may then be contaminated with harmful germs. Touching these objects again can cause germs to be spread when they are touched again outside of the public restroom.

Otherwise, contamination germs can also be spread from contaminated hands to parts of the body such as the thighs or abdomen if the person rests their hands on those body parts while using the toilet.

Later pulling on clothes after using the toilet can spread germs from the thighs to underwear or pants that are then positioned close to the genital area. Some normal walking can move these germs from underwear or pants into the genital area.

Commonly transmitted via this type of restroom contamination are germ types 1 and 2 above such as colds, flu, COVID-19, stomach flu (norovirus), and yeast. Yeast is commonly transmitted this way.

Sometimes transmitted to occasionally transmitted by this type of restroom contamination are germ types 3 and 4 such as Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Hepatitis E.

Recommended Sanitary Procedure when using Public Restrooms

Doing the following sanitary procedure with alcohol hand sanitizer when using a public restroom should be very helpful for substantially reduce the risks of germ transmission from contact points in the restroom.

This description is quite detailed, but the extra time needed is reasonable. It is estimated to take about 1 to 2 extra minutes in the toilet stall. Then about another 30 seconds to 1 minute is needed afterwards.

Please carry a personal bottle of alcohol hand sanitizer with you into the restroom.
After entering and closing the restroom stall, use hand sanitizer to sanitize your hands before placing any personal items such as purse or backpack to hang on the toilet stall hangar. If you do not have such items, you can skip to step 3.
Then use some hand sanitizer on toilet tissue to wipe the toilet flush handle. Then place the used tissue into the toilet bowl.
If there is no disposable paper shield for the toilet seat, then use some hand sanitizer on toilet tissue to wipe the toilet seat and front top surfaces of the toilet bowl that might touch your body. Then place the used tissue into the toilet bowl.
Use some hand sanitizer on toilet tissue to wipe the toilet door lock control and the toilet door handle. Then place the used tissue into the toilet bowl.
Use hand sanitizer to sanitize your hands before undoing clothing.
Flush the toilet before sitting on the toilet.
If available, place a disposable paper shield on the toilet seat.
Keep the hand sanitizer bottle in an available place.
Then sit on the toilet and use the toilet.
Flush toilet when finished.
Use hand sanitizer to sanitize your hands before pulling up your clothing and fastening your clothing.
Take the hand sanitizer bottle and your other belongings such as purse or backpack and then open the toilet stall door.
Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
Wash the hand sanitizer bottle thoroughly with soap and water.
Exit the restroom.
Use paper towel to hold the restroom door handle if paper towel is available.
If no paper towel is used to hold the restroom door handle, then use hand sanitizer one more time to sanitize your hands after exiting the restroom.
Because alcohol hand sanitizer can dry the hands, you can optionally carry a personal bottle of hand lotion and use hand lotion on your hands after you are outside the restroom.
Please keep your personal bottle of hand sanitizer nearly full by refilling it often from a large hand sanitizer bottle at home.

About People who have Hepatitis

People who have been diagnosed to have Hepatitis infection have been specially trained as part of their medical care to carry and use alcohol spray or alcohol wipes to clean a restroom stall after they use a restroom stall.

Part of the transmission risk problem is that Hepatitis A or B has a gradual onset over weeks to months. These are the two most common types of Hepatitis.

By the time that a lab test can first detect Hepatitis A or B, the person has already been infectious for several weeks.

By the time of the first noticeable mild symptoms of Hepatitis A or B, a person with Hepatitis A or B can already be infectious for the previous one to two months or even longer.

People are most often diagnosed with Hepatitis A or B after several weeks to months after becoming infectious. Then treatment begins and special training is given.

Before a person is diagnosed with Hepatitis A or B, contamination can occur from such a person in restroom toilets which causes transmission risk.

When a person becomes infected with Hepatitis C, most likely the person will have some initial symptoms within 1 to 2 weeks (Hepatitis C flash infection) after the contact with the virus that causes Hepatitis C. The infectious period before being diagnosed is short (0.5 to 1.5 weeks) if initial symptoms are noticed within 1 to 2 weeks of exposure.

But some people that become infected with Hepatitis C do not have noticeable initial symptoms. Then these people may not know that they are infected and may experience a dormant period that is long (up to several years) before initial symptoms of Hepatitis C are noticed. During this dormant period, the virus level is low enough to be low risk for transmission until the last one to three months before initial symptoms are noticed. Overall, the person may have an infectious period for one to three months before initial symptoms are noticed.

About Restaurants and More about Restrooms

There are some risks of transferring germs through a series of physical contacts while being at a restaurant in combination with using the restaurant’s restrooms or nearby mall restrooms.

From intuition, most of the infectious disease cases that are transferred in restaurants are sourced from an infection of another restaurant customer rather than from an infection of a restaurant worker.

Restaurant workers are trained to wash hands thoroughly. In addition to using the restroom sinks, restaurant workers use handwashing sink(s) within the food preparation area(s).

In nearly all countries, restaurant workers must test negative on a periodic basis for some infectious diseases that may transfer through food preparation and serving. Illness cases caused by a restaurant worker are therefore quite uncommon for these infectious diseases. There is a small possibility of an undetected illness that can occur to a restaurant worker between testing dates.

Restaurants also train workers to not to work if they have any respiratory illness symptoms such as from colds and flus. However, there are some time periods near the beginning and end of the course of a respiratory illness when a worker might be working because the symptoms are not noticeable to quite mild.

Commonly, infectious germs are sometimes carried out of the restroom by a restaurant customer on his/her hands. Once germs are on a customer’s hands, it can cause possible infection(s) for that customer and other people sitting at the same table. Other people at the same table can be become infected from items touched by one restaurant customer such as shared items such as serving spoons, bread baskets, or salt and pepper shakers.

This is often due to a customer that does a quick wash of their hands that is only partial and not thorough. For example, an example person may decide that his/her hands are only a little dirty after urination. Then the person only quick washes their fingers. Unfortunately, the palm of one hand may have touched the restroom stall’s door handle or a toilet or urinal flush lever. These surfaces may already be contaminated by previous customers as described in the previous section.

Some people also behave irregularly by sometimes not washing hands at all when using the restroom for urination. An example person may think that his/her hands are less contaminated than the sink faucet handles that are being touched by many customers. Unfortunately, the example person may have touched a restroom stall’s door handle or a toilet or urinal flush lever.

The inside door handle of the restroom exit door can become contaminated by previous customers that have not washed hands thoroughly. Some people use a paper towel to hold the handle to open the restroom exit door.

The Buddha school recommends that it is much safer to wash hands thoroughly and then use a paper towel if possible to help hold the sink faucet handles and the restroom exit door handle.

The Buddha school also recommends that using hand sanitizer after exiting a restroom is helpful for health safety.

About Take-Out Food from Restaurants:

From intuitive guidance, eating take-out food from a restaurant typically has substantially lower risk over time for transmission of infections than dining in at the same restaurant. Eating take-out food can often be a factor of 2x to 3x+ reduction in transmission risk.

About Women Sitting on Chairs while wearing Skirts and Shorts

Females can transmit and receive germs while sitting on shared chairs in public places such as restaurants or shopping malls or public / shared transportation. This happens especially to and from women who wear shorter skirts and panty underwear. It can also happen to women who are wearing shorts.

The types of infectious diseases described earlier in this web page can be transferred this way. Yeast infection of the female reproductive system is one type of infection that is often transferred by sitting on shared chairs.

The germs from other women can already be on the top surface of the chair.

The next woman sitting down on the chair with a shorter skirt or shorts can get germs transferred to her thighs. Germs that are on her thighs can be spread to the genital area later when pulling on her underwear after using the restroom or by touching.

Germs can sometimes also be transferred close to her underwear when a woman with a shorter skirt sits on a chair if she contacts the chair that way while sitting down. Germs that are on her underwear near its edges can transfer to the genital area when her underwear moves normally while walking.

Sanitary Recommendations

The Buddha school recommends that it is safer for women to wear safety shorts when wearing skirts. Safety shorts are a type of shorts with small inseams (typically 2 to 4 inches) that are worn beneath skirts. They can be purchased separately. Also, some skirts have safety shorts that are attached already to the skirt.

The Buddha school recommends showering after returning home after visiting public places or using public / shared transportation. Showering washes away germs that may be on the legs from sitting on chairs while wearing shorts or skirts. Changing to fresh clothes after showering greatly reduces the chances of germ transmission from clothing.

If a person wears long pants, it is helpful to change to fresh pants after returning home after visiting public places or using public / shared transportation.

Cleaning items such as cell phones and tablets and belt buckles and the outside of purses is helpful when possible.

Alcohol wipes can sometimes be used on hard surfaces such as cell phones and tablets, but alcohol can damage and reduce the effectiveness of some anti-reflective and anti-smudge coatings on displays.

Also, leather and cloth items would probably be damaged by alcohol.

Wiping with a cloth that is dampened with water and 10% to 20% liquid soap is somewhat helpful for reducing germs.

There are also some sanitization products that use ultraviolet UV light shining within a closed box to do sanitization.

Building Design Recommendations

About Handwashing Sinks

Installing handwashing sinks that are outside of the restroom would be very helpful for final washing after leaving the restroom instead of using hand sanitizer.
Also, handwashing sinks that are outside of the restroom are very helpful for people who wish to wash hands but do not need currently to use the toilet.
In restaurants, installing some handwashing sinks near the dining areas is quite helpful for restaurant germ safety.

About Restroom Toilet Stall Design

A reliable no-hands design for automated opening, closing, and locking restroom stall doors can be part of a new restroom toilet stall design. It can be done with a design that uses electrical power and some no-touch sensors for people to indicate to open or close or lock the stall door.
A reliable no-touch method for flushing the toilet can also be very helpful.
Here are some thoughts about no-touch sensors for opening, closing, and locking the restroom stall door and for flushing the toilet:
1. A sensor device where part of a hand can be inserted to block a beam of light from reaching a light sensor is one hand sensor type that is more reliable.
2. An electronic capacitive sensor or an ultrasound sensor that senses when a person’s hand is very close can also work well.
3. Using redundant sensors and having a manual override to be used when needed should improve the reliability of the new restroom stall design.