I was at my Family Doc the other day, and we were talking about the large number of people getting colds and such now. I mentioned using hand sanitizers (like Purell) after I noticed her washing her hands after the exam. She said “Well they say that those sanitizers don’t work”. I didn’t really have a chance to follow up on that.
Is there a general consensus about the efficacy of hand sanitizers?
The CDC just recommended that health care workers switch to alcohol-based waterless hand sanitizers instead of regular handwashing between patients. Their research determined that the stuff works, and the convenience results in people cleaning their hands more often and more thoroughly.
Check www.cdc.gov for the reports, in the past couple of weeks or thereabouts.
This is purely a nonscientific personal observation, but back when I was fixing computers for a living, we demanded that our bosses keep us supplied with waterless instant hand sanitizer. See, when you run around the building all day, touching other people’s grimy keyboards and mouses and working inside yucky dust-filled CPUs, there’s no telling what little creepy-crawlies you come back with.
After we started using the sanitizer religiously, no one in our group got sick for over 6 months; previously, at least one of us would call in once a month. So, my observation is, they work.