So says Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director of the infection
prevention and control program at Loyola University Health
System. Parada cautioned that as soon as something touches an
unclean surface, it picks up dirt and bacteria. “A dropped item
is immediately contaminated and can’t really be sanitized,” said
Parada in a health system news release. The amount of bacteria
and what type of microbes are involved depend on the object that
is dropped and where it falls, he added. Rising off contaminated
items with water may not clean them entirely, but it could
significantly reduce the amount of bacteria on it, Parada noted.
“Maybe the dropped item only picks up 1,000 bacteria, but
typically the inoculum, or amount of bacteria that is needed for
most people to actually get infected, is 10,000 bacteria — well,
then the odds are that no harm will occur,” he said. That’s not
the case for items that are “cleaned” by licking them off or
putting them in the mouth. “That is double-dipping,” Parada
explained. “You are expo