How hygienic are public toilet seats"

We've all been there, you're desperate for the loo, and frantically hunting for a toilet, only to find when you get there, that the seat is covered with "droplets" from the previous user. So what should you do '" carry on regardless, or try and squat while you do your business"?
The world is in many ways a microbial planet and, as its inhabitants, we carry within us our own microscopic rain forests '" which we exchange with the environment and each other all the time.
Microbes are abundant throughout the human body, including the skin, mouth, eyes, urinary and genital organs and gastrointestinal tracts. Most people carry up to a kilogram of microorganisms. These are largely within the gut and comprise bacteria, fungi, yeast, viruses and sometimes parasites.
Research has shown that microbes from your gut make up 25-54 per cent of faecal matter. Human faeces can carry a wide range of transmissible pathogens: Campylobacter, Enterococcus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and Yersinia bacteria '" as well as viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and hepatitis A and E, just to name a few.
So of course, there is always going to be an infection risk in...

Full story