Flushing Uncovered Toilets Spread Deadly Germs

Have you been flushing the toilet while it is uncovered? You could be releasing loads of germs, es-pecially the Clostridium difficile bacte-rium into your environment. That was the result of a recent research which shows that the deadly bacterium is most-ly spread through the faecal-oral route and flies into the air to contaminate surrounding surfaces when toilets are flushed uncovered. In a report which was published online recently in the International Journal of Hospital Infection, the researcher E. L.

Best from the Microbiology Department, Old Medical School, Leeds Teaching Hospital measured airborne suspension of the bacteria in addition to surface contamination after flushing of both lidless and lidded toilets. The researchers dis-covered the number of viable bacteria to be 12-fold higher from open toilets when compared with closed toilets.

Unfortunately, these did not stop there as surrounding surfaces were also con-taminated within 90 minutes of flushing, with relatively large droplets released in the immediate environment. Results of the study further indicated the mean number of droplets to be between 15 and 47, depending on toilet design.

Symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Illness from C. difficile most com-monly affects older adults in hospitals or in long term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medica-tions.

Dr. Saheed like the other researchers advised the discontinued use of lidless toi-lets while promoting the covering of lidded ones while being flushed.

National Mirror