Study: Using Hand Sanitizer Might Not Stop The Spread Of Germs

(CNN) — Achoo! As you reach for a tissue and blow your nose you notice your coworkers recoiling in horror, so you make a reassuring pump of the hand sanitizer. “See, I’m protecting you!” you want to say to them as you rub the translucent goop across your hands. But are you really protecting them? A new study shows that quickly smearing an ethanol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands probably won’t kill those cold and flu bugs. According to the study, it’s because your fingers are still wet with mucus. Japanese researchers dabbed wet mucus harvested from people infected with influenza A onto the fingertips of 10 plucky volunteers and then applied hand sanitizer. The ethanol didn’t kill the flu virus, even when the sanitizer was left on their fingers for a full two minutes. It took four minutes to fully deactivate the virus so that it wasn’t infectious. A contradictory result The results of this new study are in contrast to many previous studies that show ethanol-based disinfectants are quite effective against the spread of germs. “In our studies hand sanitizers worked pretty darn good compared to soap and water,” said microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor at the University of Arizona who is more commonly known as “Dr. Germ” for his work on infectious microbes. “The reason why is most people don’t wash their hands enough to kill the germs,” Gerba said. “We’ve done surve...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health News Syndicated CBSN Boston CNN Hand Sanitizer Source Type: news