Your car: A hotspot for germs?

Bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "car sick," health officials claim our everyday vehicles, if not handled properly, are acting as petri dishes of viruses and bacteria.

Whether you're wrapping up a trip to the supermarket or picking up the kids from gymnastics, the germs that gather on your hands are ready to be absorbed by your car steering wheel, wiper handle, gear shift, window controls and more.

And those germs don't only last for that one trip. They're "along for the ride" for as long as five months, re-contaminating anyone who gets behind the wheel, as well as passengers.

"If somebody gets in your car and they touch the radio buttons that you have previously touched and contaminated, now they've contaminated their hands," said Jill Holdsworth, a chapter president with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. "If you reach a cracker back to your child in the back seat and your hands aren't clean, you allow your child to ingest the bacteria that was previously on your hands."

Holdsworth suggested the threat of back-and-forth bacteria can be diminished if car owners follow some simple, clean tips.

"Frequent disinfecting of the high-touch areas, and frequent hand-washing when inside the car, can keep you safer and keep you from getting sick," explained Holdsworth, noting hand sanitizer and wipes are a must in cars and trucks.

The outside door handles should be addressed also. The fibers of the car seats themselves can soak up bacteria as well, but Holdsworth said that's a harder problem to tackle.