London, May 1: The next you go on a ‘clean home’ drive make sure to head first to the computer and then the toilet seats, for according to a new research, the PC’s keyboard can be dirtier than the average toilet covers and are home to millions of bacteria, which can lead to diarrhoea and vomiting.

The research found that the “dirty qwerty's” were home to a host of bugs, including E coli and staphylococcus aureus, which can cause skin infections.

Microbiologists found the computer viruses after swabbing more than 30 keyboards to test for bacteria, along with a toilet seat and toilet door handle in a typical London office.

One keyboard had to be removed from the office as it had 150 times the pass-limit of bacteria and was five times filthier than the toilet seat.

"Most people don't give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC, but if you don't clean your computer, you might as well eat your lunch off the toilet,” The Scotsman quoted Sarah Kidner, editor of Which? Computing, who conducted the research, as saying.

Two more of the 33 tested keyboards had "warning levels" of bacteria, putting the user at risk if it spread, and a further two had high levels of coliform – associated with faecal matter.

Munching on snacks at your desk is the main cause of germs as crumbs fall in to the keyboard and encourage the growth of bacteria.

Poor personal hygiene and dust, which traps moisture, also provide bacteria with ideal growing conditions.

Professor Hugh Pennington, one of Scotland's leading microbiologists, said there was no cause for alarm, adding poor personal hygiene was at the root of the problem.

"This is all about people doing things like picking their noses or not washing their hands after going to the toilet and then using their computer keyboards,” he said. (ANI)