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How to clean your cell phone to prevent the flu

Posted at 10:41 PM, Jan 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-24 22:41:44-05

There are many things you can do to protect yourself from getting the flu or infecting others, and experts say one of them is cleaning your phone.

Your phone spends a major part of your day in your hand, and experts say it can have ten times more bacteria on it than a toilet seat.

With this year's widespread, intense flu, Dr. Mary Beth Saunders of Lee Health said it's important to take as many precautions as possible.

"Everything we touch with our hands, and then our hands become contaminated with germs. Those germs then transfer to our cell phone," Dr. Saunders said.

Jeremy Azinger, the owner of iBreakiFix in Fort Myers, fixes hundreds of phones a week. He cleans every phone that comes into the shop.

"You want to make sure not to use any sort of cleaning wipes or anything like that because that can damage the coating on the device," Azinger said. They can also damage the internal parts of your phone, too.

Instead, he said to use a microfiber cloth and 70-90 percent isopropyl alcohol.

"The higher the content, the quicker it dries, the less likely it is to damage your device," he said. "Typically you want do front and back sides. Anywhere you touch. Buttons are equally important."

You can also use Q-tips to get the hard-to-reach places.

Health experts recommend cleaning your phone multiple times a day to best prevent the flu.