In this infamously flu-ish time of year ~ and not to make you paranoid or anything ~ I thought you might want to be aware of the following, courtesy of wisegeek.com:
How long the flu virus, or influenza virus, can live outside the body
varies depending on the infected surface. For example, the virus can
live for as long as 12 hours on porous materials such as tissue or
cloth. Nonporous materials, such as wood or metal, can carry a live flu
virus for as long as 48 hours after being infected. If a surface is wet,
that can increase the life of the virus to 72 hours outside the body.
The flu virus tends to live on skin for only a couple of minutes, but it
can spread rapidly during that time from contact with the hands or
other parts of the body.
More about the flu virus :
- The flu virus is thought to be able to travel as far as 6 feet (1.83 km) when an infected person blows his or her nose or sneezes.
- The surfaces that most commonly harbor live flu viruses include refrigerator handles, telephones and television remote controls.
- As much as 15% of the world's population is infected with the flu virus in any given year.
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