Germs are everywhere, so just relax

There's nothing that will give rise to a particularly nauseous variety of heebie jeebies like reading about other people's poo lurking on things we frequently touch.

From ATMs to McDonald's touchscreens to office kitchen mugs, it seems that touching anything outside the house, no matter how regularly it's cleaned, will likely give you a good dose of a stranger's faecal bacteria.

But while it might be a yucky thought, a microbiology expert says there's no reason for the vast majority of us to panic.

"Our world is not sterile," Swinburn University’s Professor Enzo Palombo tells Coach.

"We tend to forget that most bacteria are harmless – in fact, they are beneficial. The paranoia that anything we are exposed to is going to make us sick is really over-the-top."

Professor Palombo says that up to 98 percent of the microbes known to scientists are beneficial to our bodies, with only about 2 percent giving any cause for concern.

"The things that are in our faeces are in there for a reason – they're digesting our food and providing nutrients that we don't manufacture ourselves," he explains.

"They are part of our natural environment."

There's a good chance that the microscopic faecal bacteria that you touch on a public surface are actually quite similar to what's already lurking in – and on – your body.

"We are probably going to be exposed to the things we already have on us by other people, and therefore they are essentially harmless," Professor Palombo says.

And even if you did come in contact with some of the nastier varieties, Professor Palombo says you likely wouldn't be likely to be exposed to the volume required to get sick.

"For most nasty microbes, the number [required to reach] infectious dose is quite high," he says.

"We don't get huge numbers of people with diarrhoea. We have a barrier called skin and mucous membranes around our gut and respiratory tract, which are all designed to stop us being 'invaded'."

Professor Palombo says you're far more likely to pick up a cold or flu from touching common surfaces, so it's never a bad idea to regularly wash your hands – particularly people who have more vulnerable immune systems, including young children, pregnant women, the elderly and cancer patients.

"The underlying message should be to practice good hygiene, such as washing your hands – that should eliminate most of the problems," he says.

"Washing your hands regularly – not compulsively – does lower the incidence of cold and flu because the hand is the vehicle of transmission."

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