Intimate Pat-Downs Raise Risk of Infection at Airports (not just pat-downs)

Live Science ^ | November 23, 2010 | Amanda Chan

[decimon]

When Hillary Bessiere flew to Cancun from Phoenix last week, she saw something that grossed her out, and validated her stringent travel hygiene habits: A woman changing a baby's diaper on an airplane, with nothing between his naked little bottom and the seat.

"I'm a mother, too, and I would never, ever do that," said Bessiere, director of business development at an event-planning firm in San Francisco.

This sort of incident is what spurs Bessiere, who travels about two weeks a month for work, to wipe down seats with disinfectant, use hand sanitizer religiously and wash her hands regularly. Health experts say her habits aren't in vain - especially if the bacteria from a baby's diaper ended up on the glove of a Transportation Security Administration officer during a security check.

Airports and airplanes were never clean places to begin with - after all, they're where large crowds from across the world converge in confined spaces.

But as screening procedures get stricter and more passengers opt for pat-downs instead of graphic X-rays, the likelihood of bacteria being spread increases, said Patrick Schlievert, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The more aggressive the searches, and the more intimate contact there is, the higher the likelihood of transmitting infection, Schlievert said.

[decimon]

Has ever one forgotten about http://history1900s.about.com/od/1900s/a/typhoidmary.htm Typhoid Mary?

Thanks. Mary must have been a redhead. ;-)

[Irenic]

What about people who clean the planes.

Using the same towel they wipe down the bathroom with to wipe down the trays on seat backs.

[Daffynition]

I hope you have a *grin* to match.;D