This topic comes up frequently so I thought I’d look a bit for some current information. I did a search on google.com using the key words “disease transmission musical instruments”. Two of the relevant links are:
http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/harts/HARTS_library/sharedinstr.txt
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/~barobert/publications/aids.html
You will have to cut and paste the addresses to get to these sites. I don’t know how to make them come up as links.
If you run the search on google you will find many more links.
Mike Burns
(edit: They came out as links after all.)
[ This Message was edited by: burnsbyrne on 2002-08-23 09:33 ]
If I read these correctly, the first link says not to worry and the second link says to worry…?
On 2002-08-23 09:40, avanutria wrote:
If I read these correctly, the first link says not to worry and the second link says to worry…?
Yea, well… Nothing’s as reliable as a Generation whistle. 
Seriously, I don’t think they said anything contradictory. Both said HIV or Hepatitis B could, theoretically, be transmitted by a shared instrument but the CDC has never heard of it happening. Ditto for TB. The more likely scenario is transmission of cold or cold sore viruses by passing an instrument quickly from one player to another because these viruses don’t live long outside the human host. Both articles say that disinfecting the instruments with commercially available solutions is an adequate safeguard.
Mike
[ This Message was edited by: burnsbyrne on 2002-08-23 10:24 ]
Both articles recommended a one part bleach/ten part water solution (although one retracts it as being too corrosive) to clean the instuments. I would do that if I got a used instrument that I intended to clean well once, if it had no wood on it and was completely plastic or metal at the mouthpiece.
The first article says using alcohol is good…and that’s what I’d do if I ever wanted to blow on someone else’s whistle, say in a session setting or something. Alcohol prep pads would work in this case.
But I won’t do it. Call it a character flaw, but after taking a semester of Microbiology…well, I just can’t do it.
Kim
Well I can definitely think of one that is passed around by trying someone else’s whistle. As far as I know, there’s no cure for it either. Once you contract WhOA you have it for life. Beware!
On 2002-08-23 10:19, Kim in Tulsa wrote:
…
But I won’t do it. Call it a character flaw, but after taking a semester of Microbiology…well, I just can’t do it.
Yeah, I know what you’re saying. Microbiology really killed sex for me. :roll: 