Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Voting precincts try to keep flu at bay
Voters were given hand sanitizer and cotton swabs in an effort to keep voting clean.
JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times
Aaron Jenkins helps Susan Mew as she votes Tuesday at Highland Park Elementary School in Roanoke. Behind Mew is her son.
JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times
Hand sanitizer was available for voters at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Blacksburg.
Election Day 2009
- Video: Roanoke Republicans react to McDonnell election
- Video: Republicans Cleaveland, Griffith celebrate House victories
- Photo gallery: Images from Election Night
- Photo gallery: A day at the polls
Election Day 2009: Full coverage
The flu
roanoke.com/flu
One person, one cotton swab.
Among the clear winners Tuesday were the manufacturers of hand-sanitizing gel.
Election Day coincided this year with the H1N1 flu pandemic, a reality that begat a few ballot-casting quirks at polling places in the region.
Experts say the flu virus can survive for varying times on different surfaces.
As a result, voters in Botetourt County were offered disposable coffee stirring sticks to cast their vote on the touch-screen machines.
In Franklin County, the stylus of choice was disposable cotton swabs.
At least one polling place in Roanoke handed voters a pencil, wiped down between uses, to poke the touch-screen with the eraser. At the Highland Park Elementary School precinct, at least two poll workers occasionally wore surgical masks to protect themselves from voters who might be ill.
For the election, the Virginia Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention donated a combined total of 2,000 bottles of hand-sanitizing gel for use in polling places.
Dr. Thomas Kerkering is chief of infectious diseases for Carilion Clinic. He said studies done with influenza A viruses such as H1N1 have shown the virus can be recovered from nonporous surfaces such as plastic and steel, in diminishing concentrations, after 24 to 48 hours.
A wet surface, higher humidity and temperature can increase the period during which the virus can be recovered, Kerkering said.
But virus "placed in a tissue or cloth survives for about 15 minutes," he said.
On surfaces, simple bleach or solutions containing 70 percent alcohol "readily kills influenza A viruses," he said.
On Oct. 15, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission announced it had asked election officials to develop flu-season contingency plans for Election Day -- both to help prevent the spread of H1N1 or seasonal flu and to prepare backup staffing in case of illness among poll workers.
Kerkering said he supported Tuesday's polling place precautions.
"I think it is a good idea because it has the potential to offer some protection," he said. "It is very nice to see other agencies, organizations and people getting involved in simple, but effective, public health efforts."
