@Moonchilde wrote:
@ROMARY wrote:
'I don't know'..........Seems as though almost everywhere i am, there's always someone or a few who seem to have very loud deep coughs, as they walk around here and there in stores, touching garments, items, shopping carts, etc. That, or their children who sound very ill. Sometimes it's just easier to use a hand sanitizer as soon as I get back into my car. Instead of going in and out of store and supermarket bathrooms. I guess it depends on the area, time of year (flu seasons), and how many folks are walking around with contagious illness.
@ROMARY - just to touch on one thing you mention (and I can't be the only one) - I cough occasionally, and sometimes it can sound like I have TB. I have allergies that cause me to have a chronic, off and on 'seal bark.' I take medication daily - the only remedy there is - and yet I still cough. But I'm not 'contagious' - no one can catch my allergy and I've done all I can do about it. Medicine has no allergy miracle drugs.
Also, many people must take ACE inhibitor medications for their blood pressure and in a high percentage of those who take the medications, a chronic dry cough is something they must put up with. No infection involved.
I pay more attention to people coughing, sneezing, etc during "cold and flu season", and take some extra precautions at that time of year. Other than that, I kinda figure que será, será since I'm neither immune compromised nor "geriatric" as someone termed the other day.
I do what I feel comfortable doing at the time of year I feel like doing it, as you do.
@Moonchilde. . . . This post strikes a chord within me. My seasonal allergies present as a deep, barking, productive cough; my reactive airway also presents primarily as a cough rather than a strong wheeze, and I am on an ACE inhibitor. So I can be coughing at any given moment without being at all contagious.
As as far as there being no air hand dryers in hospital restrooms, as a former health care worker, you are taught to wash your hands, leave the water on as you dry your hands with the paper towel, then use that paper towel to turn off the faucet. You should be able, in most cases, to open the door with your hip and leave. Otherwise, use the paper towel to open the door. Once your hands are clean, you touch nothing else in the restroom. It becomes second nature.
Yes, there are now "Super Bugs" out there now, but I believe we had a hand in creating them. The bacteria and viruses are amazingly adaptable little organisms that learned to to defend against all the over prescribing of unnecessary antibiotics and overuse of antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers. They became more and more powerful and continued to change and adapt to whatever we developed to combat them. The medical community has come to understand this, but convincing the public that antibiotics are unnecessary for every cough and cold and illness, and that hand sanitizer isn't needed when soap and water is available is a tough sell.
Granted, these organisms would have eventually evolved, but not this quickly.
Hugs. . .
Life is tough, but I am tougher!!
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