For those of you that regularly carry a handbag (and the few that might have a manbag), if you are like me then you probably haven’t given that much thought to the germs and bacteria that lurk in said bag. I have seen a piece on morning TV, read an article online and received an email about handbag cleanliness all in the past week. It turns out that depending on your lifestyle you could be carrying around a feeding ground of nasty bacteria. Some examples of the type of bacteria you could be chauffeuring are as follows:
• E coli which infects you with food poisoning
• Salmonella which causes diarrhoea
• Influenza virus that causes flu
• Bacillus cereus that infects you with diarrhoea
• Superbugs, including MRSA
• Herpes that cause cold sores
• Staphylococcus which causes conjunctivitis

When you think about it, it makes sense that your handbag might pick up the odd bug or two because it gets carted all over the place and put on the floor in public toilets etc. Apparently people with kids tend to have dirtier bags than people without kids except for those that frequent night clubs; they have the highest levels of contamination. So it might be an idea to clean your bag regularly and keep it off surfaces were food is either prepared or served, this should lessen your chances of playing host to some of the germs mentioned above.