How many times have you stayed in a hotel where you have wondered about the hygiene and cleanliness of the bedding? What can you really get from sleeping in a dirty bed? Even if the sheets have been changed, what about the pillow or the bedspread or the blanket?

The hepatitis A virus can survive outside the body for months. HAV can survive certain acids and some heat and survive in dry feces. Other hepatitis viruses, such as HBV and HCV, can live from 16 hours to a week.

Researchers have known since 2005 that “superbugs” like C. Difficille, found mostly in hospitals, can live for weeks on bed linens and can even be resistant to bleach. Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a relatively common bacteria found on the skin and nasal surfaces of healthy people and animals. MRSA has caused outbreaks in schools and gyms, transmitted through contact with towels.

If bedding has not been changed or cleaned properly, transmission of bacteria and viruses is possible. Catching a virus from hotel bedding isn’t common, but it is possible, especially when it comes to padded headboards, quilts, and padded pillows, which can retain enough moisture to allow a virus to live long enough to infect. Bacteria, on the other hand, are a much more resistant life form. If the host before you had a bacterial infection and deposited enough of that bacteria on the headboard or pillow, then you may be infected.

The molds responsible for skin and respiratory problems like eczema are virtually indestructible and can live almost anywhere. According to a 1999 Mayo Clinic study, 93% of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) had allergic fungal sinusitis. Mold thrives in moist, dark areas, such as air conditioning areas in tropical climates. That smell when you first turn on the air conditioning in your hotel could be a symptom of a mold problem.

So what about the swine flu? The swine flu virus or the rhinoviruses that cause colds need living cells to stay alive. Without these cells, which are found in body fluids such as blood, mucous membranes or saliva, viruses have a short lifespan, between a few seconds and 48 hours, depending on the surface. Viruses tend to live longer on nonporous surfaces, like doorknobs, than on porous surfaces, like fabric. But if the fabric gets wet with enough liquid, mucus, saliva, or fecal matter, the virus can persist for much longer.

Can you catch swine flu from your hotel bed? Not likely. You’d have to lie down and put your face in a swine flu virus repository within minutes of an infected person lying there. But, if you come into contact with a wet spot of infected bodily fluids, then it’s very possible.

While it’s highly unlikely you’ll find a hotel bed that has not only not been changed, but is still damp with infected bodily fluids from previous guests, “better safe than sorry,” in this time of pandemics and poor housekeeping, is a catchphrase to live by.

The same precautions and methods you should use for any hotel bed when checking for bed bugs will also work for checking bedding for damp or soil. Don’t wait until you’re ready to crawl into bed after a long day of sightseeing, check it out as soon as you get to your room. GET RID OF THE QUILT! Throw it in a corner and forget about it because the last time they cleaned it, Jimmy Carter was in charge. Slide his hand and arm under the sheets on top of the mattress protector (hopefully there is one) and look for any wet spots. Remember, you don’t know who slept in this bed before you. Maybe he was an older adult with incontinence, or a mother and baby changing diapers, what about a child who wets the bed? Anything is possible, why not take a minute to make sure before you or someone in your family gets on? Now smell your hand, if it stinks, wash and leave the room. Better your hand than the rest of you.

After checking the bed, move on to the headboard, if it’s padded or covered in fabric, just run your hand over it to check if it’s damp. Again, smell your hand and repeat the instructions above. If your hand smells bad, your head will too once you lie down there.

Now the most important item, the pillow. This piece of fiber or feather-filled material is more than capable of absorbing and storing fluids, mucus, urine, sweat, and blood. All that separates it from you is a pillowcase and hopefully a barrier pillow protector. Take the pillow in your hands and squeeze, hold the pillow compressed for 20 seconds, this will give you enough time to feel for moisture. I do this several times in different places on the pillow, to make sure it’s dry.

After spending the 5 minutes it took to inspect the bed, headboard, and pillow, I STILL put on a travel sheet like Allersac. If clean sheets are all that separates me from the mattress and pillow, then the added protection of my own travel sheet will give me the peace of mind to relax and feel comfortable knowing I washed the sheets.