• Avoid contact with young farm animals, especially those that have diarrhea.
• Wash your hands after gardening or other contact with soil.
• If you live where histoplasmosis is common, avoid activities like cleaning chicken coops, exploring caves or disturbing the soil under bird-roosting sites.
• If you live where coccidioidomycosis is common, avoid exposure to disturbed soil, such as excavation sites or dust storms.

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• Take your pet to the vet right away if it gets diarrhea. Your vet will want to find out if the diarrhea is caused by a germ that might be harmful to you. If possible, have a friend take care of your pet when it has diarrhea.
• Always wash your hands after handling your pet, especially before you eat. Avoid contact with your pet's feces. If your child has HIV, make sure your child washes his or her hands after playing with the pet.
• If you want to get a new dog or cat, the animal should be at least 6 months old and it shouldn't have diarrhea. This reduces your risk of cryptosporidiosis.
• Be careful about where you get your pet. Some pet-breeding facilities, animal shelters or pet stores have better hygiene than others.
• Avoid stray animals. If you decide to adopt a puppy or kitten, your vet should check the pet to be sure it doesn't have a germ that you could get.
• If you have a cat, the litter box should be cleaned every day, preferably by someone who doesn't have HIV and isn't pregnant. Keep your cat inside, and don't let it hunt. Don't feed it raw or undercooked meat. Avoid the kind of play that may result in cat scratches or bites. If you do get bitten or scratched, wash the site right away. Never let your cat lick an open scratch or wound on your body.
• Flea control is an effective way to help keep you and your cat or dog healthy.
• Limit your contact with reptiles (such as snakes, lizards, iguanas and turtles) to reduce your risk of salmonellosis. Wear rubber gloves if you must clean an aquarium or a birdcage. Avoid contact with exotic pets such as monkeys.

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• Avoid eating raw or undercooked eggs (including foods that may contain raw eggs, like cookie dough, some preparations of hollandaise sauce, Caesar salad dressing and mayonnaise).
• Avoid raw or undercooked poultry, meat and seafood, and dairy products that haven't been pasteurized. Cook poultry and meat until it isn't pink in the middle. The internal temperature of cooked beef should be at least 170°F. For poultry, the internal temperature should be at least 180°F.
• Wash fruits and vegetables carefully before you eat them.
• Wash your hands, cutting boards, counters and knives with soap and water after they come in contact with uncooked foods, especially uncooked meat.
• If you are severely immunosuppressed and want to reduce your risk of listeriosis (an uncommon disease), be careful about soft cheeses and ready-to-eat foods, like hot dogs and cold cuts from the deli. Before you eat hot dogs and cold cuts, reheat them until they are steaming.
• Never drink water directly from lakes and rivers. Avoid swimming in water that might have human or animal feces in it. Avoid swallowing water while swimming or during other recreational water activities.
• If your city has an outbreak of waterborne disease or some other reason for a "boil water" advisory, boil your water for 1 minute before you use it for drinking or brushing your teeth. Or use personal-use water filters or bottled water.
• Although it isn't necessary to boil tap water if there is no "boil water" advisory in effect, you may want to. Talk with your doctor about this, since avoiding tap water completely can be inconvenient and expensive.
• If you choose to avoid tap water completely, remember that ice made from contaminated water may also cause infection, as can fountain beverages served in public places.
• Bottled or canned carbonated soft drinks are safe to drink. Noncarbonated soft drinks and fruit juices that do not require refrigeration until after they are opened also are safe. Frozen fruit juice concentrate is safe if you reconstitute it with water from a safe source.
• If you drink fruit juice that is sold refrigerated, not frozen, drink only juices that are labeled "pasteurized." Make sure you keep them refrigerated too. Other pasteurized beverages and beer are also considered safe to drink, although no data are available about the safety of wine.

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• Remember to be very careful with food and drinks. Avoid ice, raw vegetables and fruits, tap water, raw or undercooked seafood or meat, milk and dairy products, and food bought from street vendors.
• Items that are generally safe include steaming-hot foods, fruits that you peel yourself, bottled (especially carbonated) beverages, hot coffee or tea, beer, and water that has been boiled for 1 minute.
• Treating water with iodine or chlorine may not be as effective as boiling it, but treated water can be used with a portable water filtration unit when boiling isn't practical.