VIRGINIA -- Right now the flu, colds, stomach bugs and the norovirus are all around us. Bacteria and viruses, those microscopic germs that make us sick, are everywhere.
With this year's particularly bad flu season, you can run, but can't hide from all the germs around us.
Dr. Henry Masur is an infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health. He says temperature, humidity and moisture all play a role in a virus' survival.
"Viruses start from a human. So they come from someone who coughs or sneezes or someone who gets the virus on his or her hands and touches something," says Dr. Masur.
So once these germs are airborne, just how easily do we pass them around?
We went to the offices of Carfax in Centreville, Virginia, and spread around this powder, called Glogerm, mostly invisible to the eye, but glows under a black light.
We placed it on high-use areas around the office, door knobs, phones, in the kitchen and on the computer then let employees go to work.
After 20 minutes, we took out the blacklight for a look, the powder, like a virus, spread onto nearly everyone's hands and faces.
"I had more than I expected to have. It was pretty gross," said Shannon Rew, an employee at Carfax.
"You start to realize how easily it gets passed from person to person, object to object," said Breant Tatum, an employee at Carfax.
"Once you touch another surface, the virus can stay there for hours even days. So that surfaces are a great way to transmit viruses from person to person," says Dr. Masur.
Porous things like wood or paper can help a virus live longer, and metal isn't as hospitable.
But none of that matters when it comes to high-use, hard-to-clean surfaces, like door knobs, phones and computers.
"If you're in an environment where surfaces are touched many times, you have lots of chances to get infected," says Dr. Masur.
That can make your office a virtual Petri dish for germs like influenza and nonorvirus.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
