Two-hundred Million Viruses in One Sneeze!

Watch the video above to discover the best way
to protect others when you sneeze!

Key Points

·        Bacteria and virus (for example, COVID-19) are propelled into the air when you sneeze or cough.
·        Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough.
·        Don’t hold in a sneeze – it can hurt you.
·        Best way to thwart a sneeze is to use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth
·        ALWAYS wash your hands as soon as possible after a sneeze and try not to touch anything until you do.
·        When you’re out in public, try to remember not to touch your face, eyes or mouth because someone else could have sneezed on surfaces you might touch.

 

Sneeze Science

The speed of a sneeze has been clocked as fast as 100 miles per hour (62.14 km) and can travel as far as 30 feet (nearly 10 meters).  

Each sneeze of an infected person can contain up to 40,000 droplets.  Each droplet can carry a multitude of bacteria or virus.  Each cough or sneeze can, therefore, spread up to two-hundred million viruses into the air around them.

While the droplets are floating in the air, anyone nearby may breathe them in.  They may land on the floor or on nearby surfaces and be stirred up again by air movement and be breathed in or spread to another when they touch any of the surfaces where the droplets have landed until the virus or bacteria die. 

Dangers in Public Restrooms 

If you are in a public restroom, take note:  drying your hands using an air dryer aerates the droplets and circulates them widely throughout a restroom where they can be breathed in by anyone in the restroom or when they fall on surfaces and others touch them. 

At this point, it is undetermined how long the COVED-19 virus can live outside an infected body, but early estimates were 10-14 hours.  The reason for this longevity is that the virus lives protected within an envelope or wall that gives it resilience.  Note:  bacteria is typically dependent on the moisture surrounding it and once it is dried up, the bacteria die. 

When someone touches a surface where these droplets are lurking and then transfers the droplets to their face, eyes or mouth they are risking infection.  Remember the average person unconsciously touches their face from 15.7 to 40 times an hour. 

Happy Birthday to You, Twice!

Wash your hands using warm water and soap.  Lather up while singing “Happy Birthday” twice (probably silently is best).  Then rinse the soap off thoroughly under running water.  Dry them thoroughly with fresh paper towels or just let them drip dry. 

Using the moist hand sanitiser towelettes or liquids should have at least a 60% alcohol content.  Yet, even at that concentration, they have not been seen as protective against COVID-19 - but they are helpful in reminding individuals of the 'danger in their hands'. 

You Know When You’re Going to Sneeze 

Most of us know when a sneeze is imminent.  The video above documents the reality of a sneeze.  The researchers concluded the best way to minimise and contain the spread of the droplets is to sneeze (or cough) into a tissue. 

Covering our mouths with our hands is better and more polite than not but it means our hands are ‘virus-lethal’ when we touch anything else.  Plus the droplets spew right through our fingers.  Sneezing or coughing into our elbow is not all that much better.  So keep a good supply of tissues at hand, especially if you are going to be out in public. 

Additional sneeze resources:

1.    HealthLine – ‘How Far and How Fast a Sneeze Carries Contagious Germs’, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-how-far-and-how-fast-a-sneeze-carries-contagious-germs

2.    WebMD, ’11 Surprising Sneezing Facts’, https://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/11-surprising-sneezing-facts#1

3.    Geisinger, ‘One Sneeze Spreads Germs How Far? ‘, https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2017/09/11/20/51/one-sneeze-spreads-germs-how-far

4.    LiveScience, ‘The Gross Science of a Cough and a Sneeze, https://www.livescience.com/3686-gross-science-cough-sneeze.html
5.   NCRI - NewPubMed!, 'A study quantifying the hand-to-face contact rate and its potential application to predicting respiratory tract infection',   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18357546