Prevention of Infection

Are there any preventive measures I can take?

1. Keep your hands clean by washing thoroughly with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. There is no need or efficacy in using anti-bacterial soap. In fact using these products strengthens the bacterium. The action of friction of rubbing/scrubbing the skin for 20 seconds is the most efficient protection.
2. Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed. Cough into your elbow not your hand. Use strong paper handkerchiefs to avoid droplet transmission. Wash surfaces with alcohol or chlorine bleach. Use diluted chlorine bleach in laundry.
3. Avoid contact with other people’s wounds, handkerchiefs, dirty dishcloths, unwashed food or bandages.
4. In professional settings wear the right clothing and change into street clothes when you leave. Many hospitals now use fast-acting, special antiseptic solutions, like alcohol rubs or gels - you may find dispensers placed by patient’s beds and at the entrance to clinical areas for use by staff and visitors.
5. The most important type of isolation required for any potentially resistant medical infection is what is called Contact Isolation. This type of isolation requires everyone in contact with the patient to be very careful about hand washing after touching either the patient or anything in contact with the patient. If the organism is in the nose or lungs it may also be necessary to have the patient in a room to prevent spread to others by droplet spread. Because dust and surfaces can become contaminated with the organism, cleaning of surfaces are also important.
6. DO NOT USE SOMEONE ELSE'S TOWEL OR STORE/KEEP DAMP SPORTS EQUIPMENT/CLOTHES AROUND. LAUNDER FREQUENTLY AND DRY THOROUGHLY.

Where the common cold is concerned, the best preventive action that works is avoidance of the virus. Because cold viruses are transmitted by droplets or respiratory secretion, therefore handwashing is probably one of the most effective ways of keeping the cold at bay. When in the company of someone who has a cold⁴, avoid touching your eyes or nose - there might be infective droplets on your hands - and if possible, clean possibly contaminated surfaces with a virus-killing disinfectant. Avoid sharing easily contaminated things with an infected person⁵, and keep you personal hygiene items far away - or make sure they can be cleaned properly. (These are all just common sense measures) Maintenance of a healthy immune system is also important if you are to avoid a cold. There is currently no vaccine for the common cold because there are just too many viruses to target, and the said viruses have a tendency to evolve over a short period of time.
Studies have shown that viruses can survive on human hands for several hours and that they can be spread by direct contact. As well as through coughs and sneezes, a person may pick up the virus on their fingers by touching an infected object or person.