 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Eileen
Date: 2002-12-16 18:15
I have been sick for over a week with a nasty flu/cold. I have played my clarinet a few times due to prior commitments. Is it true that you can re-infect yourself by playing on the same reed or mouthpiece days later? Maybe it's an urban legend since (a) that's a long time for a germ to live; and (b) your body should have built up immunity to the same germs. If not, what should I do to prevent re-infection?
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-12-16 20:51
It's not an urban ledgend, it has happened to me. I guess it depends on the body, mine is past the biblical "use-by" date.
Bob A
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-12-16 21:06
There are thousands of varieties of cold virus. Once you get one, you're immune. Someone else may get that cold by playing your setup, but you won't get reinfected by that virus. Of course, you can always get a new one....
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Kim
Date: 2002-12-16 21:39
it may be a long time for a single germ to live...but they reproduce exponentially in a dark, moist, and moldy place liek yoru clarinet case.
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2002-12-17 00:04
I think that Ken is right on this -- for 99% of viruses, anyway. Maybe for 100%.
However, when I was in highschool, I was absolutely convinced you could catch a cold from your own mouthpiece. I remember using this excuse for not playing one class. The band director nodded, and then turned to the girl next to me. "Amy, you'll take the solo in the concert." The 'solo' was about 4 notes long, stretching over two bars. How could he do that to me? The concert wasn't for two weeks. Oh, the shame, the agony.
That was a lot of angst for an alto clarinet. As it happens, Amy was sick on the day of the concert (or skipped for some other reason). The rest of the band was so loud that I could barely hear myself play. Just as well. I messed up one of the four notes.
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Author: Laura
Date: 2002-12-17 19:15
I never got sick again when using my reeds and mouthpiece that I played when I was sick with a cold.
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2002-12-17 21:36
Kim . . . bacteria, in general, do tend to reproduce rapidly in warm, dark, moist places. A cold, however, is caused by a virus which needs a living cell in which to reproduce.
As Ken points out, once your immune system learns to defend against a particular virus, you will not be reinfected by the same virus -- at least not without a very long period with no reexposure. I see the effects of this frequently in my high school classes. We can have half or our students out with the flu, but nobody on the staff ill because we got it when the same strain came around thirty years ago.
On the other hand, some viruses can remain active for extended periods of time on a surface. One of the most common ways of getting a cold is by touching suraces of such things as door knobs and picking up a vius left there by someone else who was infected. To make matters worse there are hundreds of strains of viruses that can cause a "cold" (a generic term for a set of symptoms) and they are constantly mutating to make more strains.
Once you get a cold, you can tough it out and be recovered in about two weeks. On the other hand, you can go out and by lots of cures from the drug store and be recovered in only fourteen days. They are now finding a few new treatments that can shorten the recovery time, but for the most part medications just make the time easier to bear.
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2002-12-17 21:40
Your immune system needs exercise.
The more likely vector is handling things like doorknobs and telephones. Mars was formerly inhabited, but the population was eradicated by a bug that lived on rotary-dial telephones.
This is the real reason for the popularity of cellphones.
Don't believe the urban legends dreamt up by the super-intelligent mice that are bent on Global domination.
(Wash your hands before you play, perhaps that will help.)
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-12-18 14:55
As has been noted, cold viruses come in many varieties with very similar symptoms exhibited by the body. If you have had a cold, you are immune to that particular virus (for a while, at least). However, it is not implausible that you may have deposited a *different* virus which didn't affect you at the time onto your mouthpiece, and that very virus might later cause you some grief -- especially after your body has been stressed by another problem. Some viruses can remain virulent after having been in a dry (or perhaps not-so-dry) environment for a long time.
Estimate of probability: somewhere between getting struck by lightning and being hit by a falling meteor. It *can* happen, but it's not something that will consume my thoughts.
Regards,
John
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Author: Hans
Date: 2002-12-26 01:17
You could try sterilizing your mouthpiece and reed with a product called Germicide. It is sold in music stores for that purpose. I haven't seen a Consumer Reports study of its effectiveness; my guess is that it would work on impervious surfaces, like a hard rubber mouthpiece, but maybe not as well on a reed where bugs can hide between the fibres. Reeds are not that expensive....
HJ
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