H+-+EQ3

Why is it important to balance personal, short-term benefits and society's long term welfare?

EQ 3: What measures can we take/do you take, personally, to prevent the spread of disease? =Wallace = We should stay healthy by having regular exercise routines, balance and healthy diets, and adequate rest. We should also stay away from drug abuse and keep our body clean. Observation of basic hygiene rules, like washing hands before meals, thorough washing of hands with hand wash after visiting medical facilities, no spitting in public areas and cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze. At all times, we should avoid sharing of food/drinks and utensils.

When we are not physically well, we should stay away from crowded/public areas (Wear a mouth mask if we need to be there), rest in bed and seek medical consultation when necessary. Try not to use antibacterial soap daily as the bacteria could develop resistance.

Most importantly, do not touch mucous material.

The picture below shows washing hands thoroughly can get rid of most bacteria on your hand.

Back To Top Rahul's comment to Wallace- I agree with you, there are many ways to prevent the spread of disease. If everybody listened and tried their best to prevent the spread of disease then there would be no need for hospitals and medication.

Soomin
Soomin's Comment to Peter: I agree with you on what you said. I think people really should wash their hands before they eat and after. A lot of people don't do that. Like at school, people just go straight to lunch and touch their found without washing their hands. And I think the picture tells you a lot of good information. I totally think turning off water lever using your elbows after you wash your hands is a very good idea. Because you don't want to touch that with your hands after you washed them with soap:] And there are a lot of germs and diseases on the lever...since many people touch it before they wash their hands..so what's the point of washing your hands if you are going to touch that water lever after you washed your hands?

Diseases are everywhere. And we need to avoid from getting these diseases. I personally, wash my hands before and after every meal, because if I don't then I can take in pathogens. And try not to use antibacterial soap each day, because the bacteria could develop resistance. Also, I try to avoid contacts with other people who are infected by diseases. Never share eating utensils with people, because it will spread the germs to other people. If you need to sneeze, sneeze into tissue or your arm, because most of people sneeze in their hand, which the diseases on their hand will spread when they touch something. Also try not to share food or drinks with other people. I see a lot of people sharing straws with their friends in the cafeteria when they are drinking drinks, try to avoid that. Wash your hands after you touch money, taxi, door knobs, key boards, shopping carts, etc. Wash with soap when you are washing your hands. Keep your food in a refrigerator and also, keep it in the right temperature for the food. Also we need to wear gauze masks when we’re sick to prevent the diseases we might cough or sneeze into the air which someone else might catch. This is a picture of a person sneezing in the right way. A lot of people sneeze in their hands...next time try to sneeze into a tissue or into your arms:

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Peter
If for example a new virus broke out that could kill many people, we would need to know how to prevent from getting it or spreading it. We might not know specific reasons on how to prevent it but we can do everyday things that keep us clean. For example, wash your hands before and after a meal three times a day. I do this most of the time. Use soap to loosen the bacteria and wash out vigorously. People might think anti-bacterial soap is good. This can be incorrect. If we use it too much, new generations of bacteria could find an immunity for the anti-bacterial soap. Which means we would need to find a new way to cure it. Also when you cough or sneeze, please cover your nose/mouth. Bacteria can escape and get into other people, making them sick. Avoid sharing drinks and food with other people.eg friends. You may be their friend, but getting them sick isn't a nice thing to do to a friend.

This is the way to wash your hands. You should wash your hands after a meal and before. Or if you touch dirty things. Like maybe money or dirt?

Soomin's Comment to Peter: I agree with you on what you said. I think people really should wash their hands before they eat and after. A lot of people don't do that. Like at school, people just go straight to lunch and touch their found without washing their hands. And I think the picture tells you a lot of good information. I totally think turning off water lever using your elbows after you wash your hands is a very good idea. Because you don't want to touch that with your hands after you washed them with soap:] And there are a lot of germs and diseases on the lever...since many people touch it before they wash their hands..so what's the point of washing your hands if you are going to touch that water lever after you washed your hands?

= =

Ele
Peter, your article was interesting and it was cool to see how many ways you listed. Soomin, I thought yours was nice, and I thought it was smart to put one of your experiences into your article. Wallace, your article was really clear and had useful information; I almost thought you got it out of a textbook!

Why is it important to balance personal, short term benefits and society's long term welfare? Well, if you know how to prevent your own small colds or sicknesses, then you can avoid creating or spreading new diseases. One example is, if you use antibacterial soap as a short term benefit to kill off bacteria, then it could affect long term welfare by making bacteria resistant to those soaps and possibly more important antibiotics that help fight off diseases. So how can you prevent getting sick? Well, one thing you can do is start off by washing your hands( without antibacterial soap!) after you use the bathroom or you touch public things taxi door handles, or a public place such as a restaurant. Always wash your hands after touching shopping carts, money, doorknobs or keyboards, because these are things that everybody touches. Always remember to use personal hygiene habits, such as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Also, it's smart to not share food with your friends. Even though you think that they are clean, they are like every other human being on the planet, and every human has germs on them. Never sneeze or cough onto your hands, becuase then when you touch or shake hands or something with somebody, they will get the germs that are on your hands too. It's best to sneeze or cough into your elbow, or if you are wearing a short sleeve shirt, sneeze onto your shirt, not on someone else. Another thing is that to keep your food fresh so you don't get sick from food poisoning. To prevent disease, it is a good idea to get a vaccine. However, you should be careful not to be TOO clean, because then your immune system will never learn to respond to sicknesses. It will become weak because it will have never learned to fight bacteria, viruses and other things off. Your immune system doesn't know what to do unless you let it experience it.

All the bacteria on my pic is just from a shopping cart handle cover. Eeeeeeww... just think... you touch that every time you go to the grocery store!



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=Nellie=

I think everybody can be allot cleaner. I think that whenever we get a cold we should always blow our noses and cough into the inside of our ellbows or wear one of those face masks so that we will be almost sure no to get them sick. Also we need to wash our hands after we use the restroom and before we eat any food. I don't think that i could be SO much cleaner. I usually don't eat before lunch but i do before dinner. Also i think that i could cough more unselfconsciously. I always cough all over Paige and then she gets mad at me for giving her sickies. This is a picture of what you should do when you cough- COVER YOUR MOUTH.

Jeffrey
Jeff's comment to Nellie: I agree that everybody can be a lot cleaner, except me, i am just, dazzling, but we're talking about other people here so. I agree that we should be careful with our sneezes and coughing, and wash our hands before we eat food. I've heard that tons of times. And sickies isn't a word, haven't you read the dictionary yet? WHOA NEVERMIND, IT IS A WORD, NICE JOB NELLIE. I want to find out new health rules that we should follow, that I haven't heard of, that'll be interesting.

What I personally take to prevent the spread of disease, is pretty simple, just a few obvious rules, that all parents yell at you to do. I wear my jacket outside in the cold, to keep my temperature good. And I don't do crazy stuff like eat a random bug on the floor, or start snorting grass or dirt, or cement. I avoid physically touching random stuff outside that I know tons of people touched already. I wouldn't just randomly roll on the grass outside in a park, because I know tons of feet have been there, and maybe some sane people left their waste there. And I usually force myself to wash my hands after a good day of skating and touching random things, even though I tried not to touch random things, it's tempting. But a lot of times, I forget, and start touching my face and my body with my dirty hands, and that's pretty nasty. And after a long day of sweating, I tell myself to take a shower, especially on weekends, but on weekends, I barely take showers because I'm too tired and lazy. And before I eat or after I use the restroom, I wash my hands.

This is a picture that shows a grass field with a random plank in it. The plank is probably packed with nasty stuff that could hurt you, and the grass has probably been touched by random animals or insects. You could get big rashes by rolling around and playing in this field.

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Hong beom
My comment to Jeff: Yeah, rolling on the grass is such a dirty thing to do... Well, I roll by accident sometimes, but I try hard to avoid nasty stuffs at outside. And that picture is really gross.. I saw many grass fields in China which are like the one in your picture. I can not even imagine about rolling there.......

It is actually very simple to prevent spread of disease personally. They are common things that you hear from your parents everyday, such as washings hands brushing your teeth. Also following common senses helps you alot at preventing disease spreading, such as cover your mouth when you cough, close your mouth and chew foods. I have rhinitis which makes me go crazy when it is getting harder. So I cough very much, which made me to automatically cover my mouth when I cough. Like this, if you practice to do something clean it will work in some days!



This picture shows exactly same thing when I cough....

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=Mary = To prevent getting sick, I usually avoid touching things that many people would of have touched, like elevator buttons. If I can't get another passenger to press it for me, I try to press it with something I have in hand, like my phone, my drink or my elbow. Sometimes I press it with my shoe when the elevator looks really dirty. Everyday, I brush my teeth, shower, wash my hands, etc. to keep myself clean. I hardly ever get sick but when I do, I try to avoid people. I'd avoid my family because they have terrible immune systems and believes strongly in medicine. When I get a cut or a scrape, I rinse it out and put something on it. When I sneeze or cough, I have a weird reflex to cover my mouth or just close it. On the street, I avoid people since they tend to spit and cough at people.  The smurf here is brushing his teeth to help keep his mouth clean and bacteria free to prevent getting sick.

Comments to Ele: You have really good information there! I agree with the part where you said that we have to let some bacteria in or our immune systems wouldn't know what to do when germs attack. But wouldn't it be sort of weird to try to prevent getting other people's bacteria if we already have billions on us? Back to top To Mary: Well I think that if you use your cell phone to click the elevator, but you would still touch your phone. Sorry, that was a bit random also I do that too. I think that we should keep clean and wash hands often if don't want to get sick. Use the old way! Use the soap! Do not use the antiseptic! Because it might make your immune system not really developed. It's ok to be not so clean, as long as you don't get sick. Well because if you use the antiseptic, a lot then the bacteria that are not killed that is surround gets stronger. :( I try not to touch the buttons and different things like that (to be cont....)

=Megan =  To prevent getting sick, if I am in a public restroom, contrary to PC's picture, I wouldn't want to use paper towels to dry off my hands after washing them. If possible, I would use a blow-dryer for 2 reasons. One, blow-dryers use less energy and therefore save the environment. Two, you know how people put the paper into the box where we take it out of? They put it there WITH THEIR HANDS, and what if their hands had bacteria on it? You might say, some blow-dryers have a button, and the people that touch them have bacteria on their hands, but today, most of the blow-dryers in public bathrooms are automatic blow-dryers, and they can sense objects that are near them.

I might not agree with PC on that topic, but I do on this one: when you wash your hands, USE REGULAR SOAP. Regular soap works by lifting up dirt (and other residues) and washing it away, eliminating 100% of bacteria and viruses, but antibacterial soap works by killing bacteria. Sometimes, through mutations, bacteria may become stronger, and may survive in antibacterial soap. This is why antibacterial agents are less effective today than they were in the 1990s or 1980s. Besides, I have heard from friends from Michigan tell me that antibacterial soap takes 2 minutes to work. I know that friends can't always give you the best information, but if that was true, and I don't know anyone that would wash their hands for 2 minutes, then this kind of soap won't help prevent spread of disease. Double whammy.

What happens to protozoa though? There aren't many products to kill protozoa, but using good hygiene may also prevent some protozoa infections.

This is a picture of antibacterial soap. Don't use every single day.

Wallace's comment to Megan: Yes, lots of detailed information, and kind of funny. I never thought that the hand towels were dirty, they are usually stored in a box where people cannot reach them. However, I don't think that the even normal soap can get rid of totally 100% of both bacteria and viruses. Some may still be left behind.

=Jeremy=

The most simple way to prevent the spread of disease is too take tiny steps like washing your hands and exercising well. When you wash your hands before you eat. Getting viruses/bacteria/protozoa through your mouth gives you a higher chance to get infected. Washing hands before you eat will minimize the risk to almost zero. By exercising daily you can make your body have more protections against harmful viruses/bacteria/protozoa that can give you nasty diseases.

Another thing that you can do is too avoid touching things that a lot of people have touched. Who knows what they have been touching! Use objects around you to push the button, or use gloves to minimize the risk of getting infected.

This picture is to show how much bacteria can be on your hand if you touch things in public places.

=Coco= Comment to Jeremy: I think that all of your informations are right but something I need to say is that I didn't know that exercises helps protecting human body. But if you don't wash your hands after exercising then you get bacterias into your bodies! I think that the basic way to prevent the spread of disease is to remember to wash your hands often. I think that there is no need to wash your hands using any kind of chemicals used to kill bacteria or viruses. If using disinfectant or chemicals like that would not be good either. The weaker bacteria will die and the stronger bacterias that has not been killed would be even stronger. They might not be killed when using the same chemicals and they reproduce and they create lots of bacteria that are immune too. Other point is don't touch things that everyone has touch because they definitely have viruses or bacterias on their hands. Avoid touching door knobs, elevator buttons, money and things that lots of people have touched. After touching those things I suggests that you wash your hands before you start eating. Another point is try not to share food because other people might have bacterias or viruses in their mouth or hands (who knows what they have touched last 10 minutes). Like everyone snatching lays from the same bag. After putting the chips in their mouth along with their fingers. Sticky saliva and then it will get on other chips! AHH bacterias!

Looks delicious but after you take a piece, you eat it with your finger in your mouth and when you get another one, haha that's when bacterias get in the whole pack!

=Lian=
 * Comment to Coco: I think you are totally right thats why every-time my family and I go out to eat lunch or dinner my mom always brings a hand sanitizer just in case if we share the food to get rid of the bacteria.

One thing I think most people should do is have a container of vitamin C tablets if they didn't have an orange or fruit at any part of the day. It's just to get a daily dose of it everyday. People should also eat healthy foods everyday to make yourself stay healthy and drink many fluids too like water. Some people are saying that our daily intake should be eating about 5 fruits and 2 vegetables. I think we should only be eating processed foods about once or twice a month.**

=Rahul-= To prevent the spread of disease you should wash your hands after coming from somewhere outside, before and after eating and whenever your hands are dirty. You also should exercise regularly and you should have a healthy balanced diet. One of the most important thing you need to do to prevent the spread of disease is to have lots of bed rest. You should sleep for at least 8 hours or more. When coughing or sneezing make sure you cover you mouth so other people around you won’t catch your disease. Keep your body clean and safe. Try to prevent disease as much as possible.

Here is a picture of a person thoroughly washing his hands.



