University of Arizona Health Science Center

Are Your Kids Making You Sick?

The germ detective solves a household mystery By Anita Bartholomew

The moring bell rings, and 25 or so adorable five-and six-years-old enter their bright tidy classroom. It's a typical day in a typical kindergarten. And the boys and girls are doing what they typically do. They select toys and books, and felt-tip markers, then several kids stick their selections in their mouths

Two little ones wips their drippy noses with a finger and sleeve. Another little boy sticks the corner of a book into his mouth. Moments later he and three other kids are reading it, taking turns flipping the pages. Each child is touching whatever traces of saliva the first child left behind, each one picking up germs.

I'm grossed out. The the slight gray-bearded man beside me, University of Arizona environmental microbiologist Check Gerba, beams in delight. Just as he anticipated this seemingly clean classroom is not a ssanitary as it looks.

He should know. Dr. Gerba is what you might call a germ detective. A well known authority on germs that make us sick, he specializes in hunting down disease causing microbes wherever they hide. His investigations have taken him from private kitchens to public restrooms to the food-expert centers of South America. He seems to greet the discovery of bacteria, viruses, and parasites with the glee most of us reserve for opening Christmas gifts. It's no wonder his job has earned him the nickname Dr. Clean.

Some of what he's turned up may surprise you. "Your dog got it right; drinking out of the toliet wasn't such a bad idea"> The scientist chuckles noting that his studies found more fecal bacteria in the average kitchen sick (from contaminatioed raw rood, washed there) than in the typical flushed toliet bowl.

In a recent test of more than 800 public areas-such as shopping malls, workplaces and day-care centers-Gerba and his colleagues discovered residues of blood, mucus, saliva and uring on many types of surfaces- elevator buttons, shopping-carts handles and escalator hand rests among them. But the places that were most contaminated? Childrens palygrounds (36 % of surfaces tested) and day-care centers (46 precent of surfaces tested) . That particularily bad news because children are more susceptible than adults to the random germs that surround us all.

Dr. Gerba is attending kindergarten today at the request of Reader's Digest. We asked him to spend sometime with the Kelly family or Sarastoa, Fla-Bryan and Danielle and their two children, six year old T.J. and two year old Shannon. The Kellys seem constantly to be passing around colds, flu and other viruses- which make them like more families with kids.

It's been show that once you have children, the number of colds per audyt in the family at least doubles," Gerba says.

But annoying sniffles are the least of it. Many microbiologist believe there has been a steady increase of the number of infections in kids that lead to intestinal and stomach upset.

Why? "It may be because children are going into day-care centers and into school at a younger age," Gerba says. "so they're exposed to more germs earlier on. We also take the children to large play areas, like playgrounds at fast-food restaurants. Not to mention trips to the mall"

So exactly what kind of germs are out there waiting for our kids? And can we minimize our children's exposure by keeping certain surfaces clean? We We're about to find out.

The slim, bespectacles scientist sits in a kiddie-size chair at the back of the classroom and sets out test rubes, swabs, and chamicals-his ad hoc lab. With a Q-Tip like swab he dabs on a spot on the table's surface. "I'm going to look for fecal bacteria, slaavia, blood, mucus, and a measure of good filth", he announces as he drops the swab into a test tube".

If the liquid in the test tube turns dark in the next ten minutes, bodily fluids are present. And if bodily fluids are present, we know that germs could be present too. As there are hundreds of possibilities including viruses that cause colds, flu, and diarrhea, and bacteria such as Stalphylococcus aurens (staph) and strep and parasites-this test dosen't look for specific microbes.

Gerba dabs again at the same spot, using a second swab, which he places in a separate tube. This test is for coliform bacteria and E. coli, baoth present in fecal matter. The E. coli he's testing for does not cause disease like the strain responsible for recent outbreaks of food poisioning but if they type is present, the other more dangerous variety may be as well. How might bacteria from feces find it's way onto these surfaces? Improper hand washing after going to the bathroom, says Gerba.

It will be about 24 hours before we'll have the fecal-bacteria results. As he shakes the test tubes I scan the rom. One child picks his nose, then wanders over to the supply shelves for a bottle of paper paste. He handles a number of bottles before he decondes on the one he wants. Gerba also watches intently, then scurries over and swabs a paste bottle as well as several markers on the shelf.

Through the moring, as the kids sing and play, Gerba swabs the surfaces they touch most; toys, computer, play areas. He also checks a sponge on the sink where the kids wash up before lunch. "A sponge is a great area for microorganisms to grow", Gerba says. "So life is teriffic in a sponge if your a bacteria".

At each desk is a water bottle and a pull-top; each is labeled with a child's name. Gerba swabs one pull-top.

When the children leave for the cafeteria, Dr. Gerba examines the first set of test tubes. He finds the heaviest concentration of bodily fluids on the computer mouse, the supply shelves where paste, markers, and crayons are store, and the kids favorite puzzle.

But what does this mean? Could T.J. Kelly pick up a cold, flu, or dirrhea from these objects?" If somebody in the classroom had it, of course" says the germ detective. "If the surfaces are heavily contaminated with such fluid as saliva or blood, then they're also heavily contaminated with any germs growing in those fluids

Soon whe're off to the playground where T.J. and his classmates enjoy exuberant fun before clas resumes. Spoilsport that he is, Gerba is right behind them, swabbing money bars, play tunnels, and slides.

The we head for a favorte fastfood restaurant, which has a big playroom with plastic tunnels, pens, and slides. Gerba is one stop behind curly headed Shannon as she crawls through a certain of clear vinyl streamers into a blud padded playpan. One look at the vinyl stips and Gerba knows he his pay dirt. "Gross!" he shouts, a little too enthusiastically for my taste. "Ever kid pushes through this with his face and wipes his nose on it on the way in". He also testes the blue pen behind the vinyl stips and one of the tunnels.

While we devour our fried food, the swabbed samples develop. Within minutes as Gerba guessed, we learn that the vinyl shield is the most heavily contaminated with bodily fluids. The playpen and Tunnels are contaminated too. These fries that I enagerly gobbled are suddenly not sitting so well.

The next day, the University of Florida lab in St. Petersburg, Dr. Gerba examined the second set of test tubes. We're look for bacteria that originate in fecal materials onthe surfaces that we tested yesterday". He explains. "If the bacterial are present, we"ll get a yellow color in these test tubes." Several samples have definitely changed color.

Gerba points to the sample he took from the sponge. The fluid is very yellow, as in the sample from the classroom sink.

What other surfaces are heavily contaiminated with fecal bacteria? The fast-food restaurant play areas, the school playground and pull top from the water bottles that the childrne had in the classroom. Gerba grins at this last discovery. It's clear that the school intended to minimize the spread of germs by labeling the bottles. But the plan backfired. "You have to use your fingers to close the cap. Then if bacteria get on there, it's going to survive for a long time because the cap is moist."

Gerba does one final test on our second set of samples, shining an ultraviolet light on the test tubes on search for E. coli which will glow if present. He finds it in one tube, but not from a sample taken in T.J.'s classroom. It's on the baseball bat that all the neighborhood kids shared. E.coli bacteria survive only a few hours, but if the kids didn't wash their hands thoroughly before dinner, E. coli germs may well have spread through several homes....

His most important advice? It's what mothers have advised for the past couple of centuries: wash your hands-when you come in from the outside, before meals, after handling food, after using the bathroom, and any other time you thing you might have come in contact with germs. According to Dr. Clean, it's still your first, last, and best defense.