The places you’re most likely to catch a virus in an airport
AIRPORTS aren’t an ideal place if you’re trying not to catch a cold as there are so many people together in one space.
There are also certain areas where the risk of infection is even higher.
Dr Alison Galdy from the University of Minnesota Infection Prevention told : “Certainly airport travel really accentuated and probably accelerated the spread of the H1N1 Virus [in 2009].”
Passengers are recommended to avoid “virus hot zones” in the airport as much as possible.
These include places that lots of people touch, as such as handrails, toilet handles, chair armrests and kiosk screens.
But the worst item of all is deemed to be the plastic trays that passengers use when going through security.
An airport security source for Fox 9: “[People] dump everything from dentures, inhalers, toothbrushes, dirty shoes, to children’s pacifiers and diaper bags into those bins on a regular basis. Rarely, if ever, are the trays cleaned.”
A spokesperson for the Transportation Security Admission recommended that: “Passengers concerned with cleanliness should travel with hand sanitizer and consider washing their hands after going through security.”
Earlier this year a study was carried out by the University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, confirming that tray tables are a likely candidate for spreading germs at airports.
It swabbed a variety of surfaces at Helsinki-Vantaa airport in the winter of 2016 that are frequently touched by passengers.
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Viruses were found on 10 per cent of everything swabbed – and most commonly on the plastic trays at security.
Bacteria that could cause sickness was also found on card readers in shops, passport checking counters, staircase rails and in the children’s play areas, as well as in the air.
Rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, was the virus that was most frequently picked up in the tests.