posted on Jun, 3 2009 @ 01:09 PM
Hello,
Hopefully this is the right thread for my question, and hopefully it is not out of line. I would like to ask about the infectivity of this new
influenza virus. I live in an apartment building with some other people in other apartments on floors above me. There is an air ventilation shaft, it
makes sense that this would be a way to get infected, so I would have to seal this off somehow.
My question is about the drain in the kitchen and the bathroom (sink, toilet, bathtub). It seems that all those drains connect to the same pipe, and
that the drains of the other apartments connect to this very same pipe as well. Is it possible to get the virus via these drains? So, let's say
someone above me is infected and he flushes the toilet or coughs into the sink, are there little non-visible cough/fecal fragments going throught the
pipes and coming into my toilet? Would the virus, having entered my drain this way, be airborne in the bathroom (and the kitchen) that way? Or
how would I contract it if this is the case? I heard that with SARS, one single infected person in an Asian city infected more than 100 people in an
apartment building this way (with fecal droplets).
So if this is a way to get the virus - What should I do? Would it be enough not to use the bathroom and the sink or would the virus spread throughout
my entire apartment airborne that way? Any advice on that matter?
Many greetings