You'll Want To Wash Your Hands <em>Immediately</em> After Reading This

You'll Want To Wash Your HandsAfter Reading This

Germaphobes, maybe you're on to something.

Sickness-causing bacteria and viruses can lurk on surfaces long after they're expelled in an infected person's sneeze or snot. Some can even stay on a surface for months, given the right conditions. While the ability of these microorganisms to actually make you sick depends on a number of factors (bacterial/viral load, your immune system, conditions for survivability), don't mind us if we play it safe and up the disinfecting and hand-washing.

Infographic by Jan Diehm for The Huffington Post.

This story appears in Issue 87 of our weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, available Friday, Feb. 7 in the iTunes App store.

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