1.1.4 Germ Transmission

The common ways that germs are transmitted include:

• Person to person. Touching body openings, eyes, mouth, nose with the hands and then touching another person or an object that another person will touch. Persons infected with germs may also pass them to others through droplets, (i.e., coughing, sneezing, spittle, etc.).
• Hand-to-food transmission (i.e., a food preparer who did not wash hands and then prepared food).
• Food-to-hands transmission, (i.e., raw or uncooked food to hands during meal preparation).
• Animals to people (i.e., from touching animals and touching face, mouth, without washing hands)

(CDC, 2016).

For additional information about how germs can be transmitted, please view the Methods of Disease Transmission infographic from National Geographic.