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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart Happens. I am Marshall Brain with today's question,

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Speaker 1: how long can a germ live in a room? The

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Speaker 1: length of time a germ remains infectious depends mostly on

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Speaker 1: the type of german is. A germ can be either

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Speaker 1: a virus or a bacterium, and each virus and bacterium

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Speaker 1: has a different behavior in the environment. For example, the

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Speaker 1: smallpox virus is incredibly durable. It can last for years.

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Speaker 1: Anthrax is the same way. Fortunately, smallpox has been eradicated

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Speaker 1: and anthrax is not very infectious. The AIDS virus is fragile.

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Speaker 1: It's only viable for a few hours. Hepatitis B, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, may survive for up to a week.

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Speaker 1: Some diseases can't survive outside the human body at all.

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Speaker 1: Syphilis and got a rea share this trait, and therefore

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Speaker 1: they depend on intimate contact for transmission. Quite a few

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Speaker 1: common diseases seem to fall into the several days to

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Speaker 1: several weeks category for survival time outside the human body.

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Speaker 1: So the answer to the question is it depends on

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Speaker 1: the disease. Fortunately, your immune system is able to handle

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Speaker 1: the vast majority of bacteria and viruses that your body encounters.

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Speaker 1: Just About everything we touch is covered with germs. They

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Speaker 1: usually have no effect on us because our immune systems

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Speaker 1: deal with them. Also fortunate is the fact that simple

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Speaker 1: hygiene steps like washing your hands thoroughly before eating, can

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Speaker 1: reduce the chance of infection significantly. Do you have any

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Speaker 1: ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send

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Speaker 1: me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

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Speaker 1: to how stuff works dot com.