Your H1N1 is in the mail...

April 15, 2013 5:14 PM

Great-grandma is sick in the hospital. Kids want to send her letters and drawings (crayon on office paper, ca. 2013) ... but kids are sick with unknown illness (flu-like symptoms - fever, cough, etc). How to avoid spreading the germs through the mail?

Transit time in the mail is just across the state, so probably 2 days at most. Any suggestions for how best to prevent getting someone who is (hopefully) recovering from surgery in the ICU sick? Or am I just overthinking this? Unfortunately I don't have easy access to a UV light, which was my first thought.

posted by jferg to Health & Fitness (18 answers total)

Can someone scan in their letters and drawings and email them?

Can you receive them and scan them in and email them to yourself - washing your hands after? Then maybe when grandma is out of the hospital she can get the real copies.

Lysol spray? Although I think digital copies might be your best bet for now.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:21 PM on April 15, 2013

Response by poster: Great grandma and onsite relatives are not technologically advanced or even internet-enabled, so scanning and e-mailing is a non-starter. Reproducing digitally and sending clean copies may be an option, but would prefer to send the originals if I can find a way to do it safely.
posted by jferg at 5:28 PM on April 15, 2013

Laminate it. You can go to Kinkos, or buy those DIY laminate sheets.
posted by acidic at 5:33 PM on April 15, 2013

Um, photocopy them?
posted by etc. at 5:47 PM on April 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Send her clean copies with a note saying "Originals to follow, once they've had a chance to disinfect." Then have the originals ready for her when she gets home.
posted by Etrigan at 5:50 PM on April 15, 2013

The postal workers who sort, ship, and deliver your mail are not required to wear gloves and your postal correspondence is subject to a lot of germs. I would spray the drawings with Lysol (which kills both viruses and bacteria) and mail them as usual.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:50 PM on April 15, 2013

I'm not sure how long a germ can live on paper - I suspect not very long or we would have gotten rid of paper money long ago.

If I was really worried, I would take the papers put them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the oven at 250F for a short period of time. I'm pretty sure most bacteria and virus's start to decompose at these high temperatures. Papers will ignite at much higher temperatures...(just make sure they don't touch the oven coils)
posted by NoDef at 5:52 PM on April 15, 2013

There is no way your kids are going to get grandma sick through the mail. (I assume they are not going to saturate their letters with snot.)
posted by latkes at 6:00 PM on April 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Call the hospital and ask them exactly this question. They will be familiar with what people in the ICU can and can't have in terms of disease exposure. The nice thing is that this is probably not the first time they've seen this exact situation.

Hope Great Grandma is feeling better soon.
posted by corey flood at 6:28 PM on April 15, 2013

Best answer: I'm an RN in the ICU. I can't guarantee grandma won't get sick, but this is what I would do were it my otherwise-healthy, non-immunocompromised relative in the hospital:

Have the kids wash their hands thoroughly before sitting down to draw their pictures. If they sneeze on a picture, it goes in the trash. If they sneeze into their hands, have them wash their hands again (something everyone should do, anyways).

FWIW, germs generally survive longer on hard surfaces such as doorknobs than soft, porous surfaces like paper. Have the kids practice good basic hand hygiene and grandma will likely be fine. If grandma is ill or in any way immunocompromised, I'd keep the kidlets and their gifts at bay until they're feeling better, or go with copies.
posted by pecanpies at 6:46 PM on April 15, 2013 [8 favorites]

(Er, great-grandma.)
posted by pecanpies at 6:47 PM on April 15, 2013

Best answer: A study on E.coli and Salmonella on restaurant menus indicated that both of them died on dry paper menus after about an hour -- just did a report on this for my Micro class!

So yeah, have the kids wash their hands, mist the completed projects with lysol, and I would think you'll be fine, considering the extra time in transit.
posted by MeiraV at 7:36 PM on April 15, 2013

I tend to think microwaving the paper for a few minutes would boil any bacteria without hurting the paper, but I'd try it on plain paper first.
posted by musofire at 7:37 PM on April 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

I have to admit my initial instinct was the same as latkes. But the research has been done and paper can indeed keep bacteria alive for days, contrary to the evidence cited above - it is not worth even a tiny risk to send the originals.

This might be a nonstarter for monetary reasons but could you load up a digital picture frame for her? Bonus is that you could include a bunch of other family photos and she might love it, and someone on site would just need to turn it on. Otherwise, laminating and then wiping with an antibacterial wipe sounds pretty foolproof.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:52 PM on April 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think you're over thinking this. I think there are way worse things floating around the hospital than are going to come through the mail from the grand kids. Let grandma feel the love and let the grandkids give it.
posted by trbrts at 8:01 PM on April 15, 2013 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, all. I probably am overthinking it, but great-grandma is 90, and recovering (thankfully) from surgery to remove an arterial clot on the way to her brain, so I'm a little paranoid. I think I will go the Lysol route, and assume that plus the two days en route will be sufficient to kill whatever fever-causing crud the short people have. Appreciate the ideas and reassurance.
posted by jferg at 8:24 PM on April 15, 2013

Why not bake your paperwork in the oven, at a bit over boiling point - maybe 300F or 150C, before passing them on to great-grandma? That should eliminate any and all infectious agents.
posted by anadem at 8:59 PM on April 15, 2013

I'd suggest if it's sunny where you are putting them out in the sun for a couple of hours. UV in sunlight is a great disinfectant thought the UV is decreased though windows so you'd have to put them outside for a bit. Could you slide the artwork into a plastic pocket like you would use in a binder if you are really worried that would help her not have direct contact with the artwork.
posted by wwax at 10:12 AM on April 16, 2013