If you don't clean your computer than you could as well eat your lunch off your toilet seat. So goes the saying. A contaminated keyboard could give one a 'qwerty' tummy (named after the first 6 letters on a keyboard). Personal hygiene & habits are not that important to some. We eat off our work desk, forget to wash our hands after going to the loo but readily shake hands as soon as we step out. In a public place or office, it is not only the keyboards but even the door handles are highly contaminated spots. Here is an interesting research on the contaminated keyboard.

BBC News
Keyboards 'dirtier than a toilet'

Some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat, research has suggested.

Consumer group Which? said tests at its London offices found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office's toilet seats.

Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often "a reflection of what is in your nose and in your
gut".

During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office's keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned.

It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found.

The equipment was swabbed for bugs, such as those that can cause food poisoning like E.coli and staphylococcus aureus.

Dr Wilson, a consultant microbiologist at University College London Hospital, told BBC Radio 5 Live sharing a keyboard could be passing on illnesses among office workers.

"If you look at what grows on computer keyboards, and hospitals are worse, believe it or not, it's more or less a reflection of what's in your nose and in your gut," he said.

"Should somebody have a cold in your office, or even have gastroenteritis, you're very likely to pick it up from a keyboard."

Which? said one of the causes of dirty keyboards was users eating lunch at their desk, with crumbs encouraging the growth of bacteria.

Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, could also be to blame, it said.

Cleaning techniques

Which? computing editor Sarah Kidner advised users to give their computer "a spring clean".

"It's quite simple to do and could prevent your computer from becoming a health hazard," she said.

She said dust and food crumbs should be shaken out of keyboards and they should be wiped with a soft, lightly dampened, lint-free cloth. They should also be disinfected with alcohol wipes.

Research by the University of Arizona last year found the average office desktop harboured 400 times more bacteria than the average office toilet seat.

They also found that, compared to men, on average women have three to four times the amount of germs in, on and around their work area.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/7377002.stm

Published: 2008/05/01 09:26:12 GMT

© BBC MMVIII


If it is hospital keyboard, the situation is much more serious. Here is another article.

Scientists in the US have linked the spread of the hospital super bug MRSA to a sharp increase in the use of technology in hospitals.

Researchers working in hospitals have found that the deadly bacteria clings to the keys of the computer keyboards used to update patient records and therefore can re-infect the hands of staff even after they had washed their hands. There were 55 deaths from MRSA in UK hospitals in 1993, but fatalities have increased every year since and by 2003 were running at nearly a 1,000 annually, according to the National Office of Statistics.

The US findings, which were presented to the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America earlier this month, found that just touching a keyboard is enough to pick up the bacteria and pass it onto a patient.

The researchers also found that cleaning IT equipment with soap and water was not enough to remove the bacteria.

The only way to clear the infection from the keyboards, according to Dr Gary Norskin from the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago who carried out the study, was to rinse the keyboard with disinfectant.

"A computer keyboard is like any other surface in a hospital and has to be sterilised," said Norskin, Northwestern Hospital's director of healthcare.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/26/dirty_keyboard_risk/