This is the time of year when I see almost everyone as a potential health hazard. My husband, who rides Tri-Met on the days he doesn't cycle, has grown used to my looks of distaste if he doesn't wash up before touching me or the kids after coming home (all those people with their moist germy hands squeezing those bars over and over and over and over). I'm not crazy, or obsessive compulsive, nor a germaphobe. Turns out that flesh-eating bacteria are all over the place, and hand-to-hand contact is the best way to begin your own personal horrorshow.

According to Wednesday's Oregonian (10/24), Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is spread by casual contact and infects around 94,000 people in the U.S. every year. Even though it has a pretty name that sounds like an undiscovered star or maybe a designer dog breed, it reproduces every 20 minutes and is capable of turning minor cuts and skin infections into "painful, disfiguring necrotizing abscesses that eat away tissue." Goody. Something else to fuel my chronic insomnia. But guess what? Simple handwashing for 15 seconds with any kind of soap is one of the easiest and most effective preventative measures. Hand sanitizer works too, and there's one that doesn't cause feline renal failure or age your hands 3 years each time you apply it.

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