Most of us shirk from people who seem to not have the right habits and who seem horribly unsanitary. Here is more proof.Carrying out a study, medical students watched hundreds of people while they sneezed and coughed at public places in New Zealand such as at hospitals, shopping malls and train stations. According to the medical students, spying on these people was fairly disgusting, with most people not even managing to prevent infectious germs from spreading.The study, carried out in Wellington during August last year – was during the whole bout of swine flu.
During this time, swine flu was a widely talked about subject internationally, with varied campaigns telling adults and children alike to take extra caution towards preventing the spreading of the virus.The good side of the results is that out of every four people, three attempted to cover their sneeze or cough – which is at least an attempt on their part to avoid the spreading of germs.
The bad news is that most of them, more specifically two out of three people used their hands.The author of the study, Nick Wilson, associate professor of public health, Otago University, Wellington said that when you use your hands to cover up your cough or sneeze, you end up coating your hands in the virus that has already afflicted you. Then, everything you touch, be it furniture, door knobs or whatever it is also get covered in those germs, and thus spread to others when they touch it as well.The recommendation made by health officials is that you sneeze into your elbow, which is comically referred to as ‘the Dracula’ – which only 1 in 77 persons did; the other recommendation is the use of a handkerchief or tissue – which 1 in 30 actually did.