BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- In the midst of the H1N1 outbreak, America has become increasingly fearful of germs.

In the past year, Americans have stocked up on $130 million worth of hand sanitizer, 30 percent more than the year before.

Eyewitness News wanted to know if all the hype was warranted. We set up an experiment with a California State University, Bakersfield microbiology class and swabbed a dozen surfaces for bacteria. They surfaces included a grocery cart handle, coffee shop, public toilet, elevator button, toothbrush, purse, playground swing chain, desk keyboard and phone.

We cultivated the bacteria on petri dishes for three days in a lab incubator. The samples turned up fecal matter, staph, human-blood-cell-destroying bacteria and fungal spores.

Dr. Antje Lauer, assistant professor of microbiology at CSUB, said she expected to find bacteria everywhere, but was surprised to find MRSA, a sometimes deadly staph infection.

"If you get an infection with one of those guys, then it might be that no antibiotic helps," Lauer said. "You can die. It's definitely very dangerous. It's no joke."

The filthiest test spots were the swing chain, toilet, desk keyboard and the inside of a purse. Some surprising findings: The toilet seat didn't turn up fecal matter, and the purse contained fungal spores, fecal matter, human-blood-cell-destroying bacteria and MRSA.

Matt Constantine, director of the Kern County Department of Public Health, said he was not surprised the purse was so dirty.

"You put your purse down on the ground often times or on different surfaces and then you may come home and you put it on your counter where you prepare food," Lauer said. "For most people with a healthy immune system, these present challenges to our immune system but generally doesn't overwhelm our system, and we're able to recover."

For someone with compromised immunity or significant exposure to bacteria, germs could land someone in the hospital with a serious skin and blood infection that could result in death.

Constantine and Lauer said thoroughly washing hands with soap and water and cleaning surfaces with a 10 percent bleach solution kills most disease-causing bacteria.