Is sanitizing the best way to prevent a contagious disease?

The Quarantine Zone
1

I was reluctant to even ask this question, because of how degrading Dopers can be.

I know, it probably is the best way, but hear me out before you go full Straight Dope on me.

When you sanitize your hands, or any surface, you not only kill possible CV, but also bacteria (both harmful and beneficial)

A couple questions:

1.) From my understanding, a virus is basically a lifeless, free-floating strand of DNA, and has a certain life expectancy. Wouldn’t having a layer of bacteria on our skin make it harder for a virus to enter our skin, or be transferred to our mouths/eyes?

2.) Bacteria are living organisms, and presumably feed on something. Do bacteria ever feed on viruses?
Hypothetically, if you rid a surface (or your hands) of 99.9% of microbial life, and the next object you touch is CV infected, would that put you at greater risk?

2

No degrading intended:)

I’m not sure what the former has to do with the latter, but the bacteria on our skin is not meant to, nor does it act as some kind of protective barrier to viruses. They’re not holding hands and making some kind of chain-link fence againt infection. Depending on the virus, they can enter though breaks in the skin, mucous membranes, or body fluids.

Interesting question. I’ve heard of bacteriophages but have never heard of a virus-eating bacteria.

The risk would be the same. The bacteria on your hands is not doing anything to mitigate the danger of viral infection.

3

Soap is better than sanitizer because it’s better at attacking the fatty layer in virus shells. Also soap is better at physically removing the virus.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-soap-or-hand-sanitizer-best-for-stopping-coronavirus

4

And preventing “infections” is an awfully broad topic. Different infections spread in different ways, and thus the means of protection against them are different. Hand sanitizer isn’t going to be any help in preventing the spread of AIDS, and condoms won’t help at all in preventing spread of coronavirus.

But even for those infections where hand sanitizer is effective, hand-washing will usually be better.

5

Bacteria do not eat viruses but some viruses do kill bacteria. Bacteria do kill each other and killing all the bacteria on your hands could let a bad strain infect you. This is a rare problem with some people who take antibiotics that kill too much of the good bacteria and allow bad bacteria to multiply in the gut.

6

What? :confused: Are you saying eliminating all bacteria on our hands–which is what surgeons do before each operation–is dangerous in that it destroys some good bacteria that would prevent disease? That is an odd and very singular viewpoint.

7

Under normal circumstances, yes, you can sanitize too much, which is why we are told not to use antibacterial soap. But we are not in normal times right now.

Someone mentioned surgeons before surgery, who scrub up to the elbows, THEN put on sterile gloves. That’s for an extraordinary circumstance, cutting into a person’s (often already-vulnerable person’s) body.

The times we are living in AT THIS MOMENT are also extraordinary. So for a few weeks or months, no it is not extreme to wash and wash, and sanitize.

The alcohol in hand sanitizers does kill viruses, but if you have actual shmutz on your hands, it doesn’t disappear, and viruses and bacteria can hide in it.

I work in a preschool, and we were taught that washing with soap and warm water is the hand-cleaning gold standard, but hand sanitizers have a place when a wash station isn’t available. However, since it’s the mechanical action of washing that actually cleans your hands, warm, running water without soap, if none is available, and then drying with a clean towel, is actually preferable to using ONLY a sanitizer, if you must make a choice between the two.

Actually, scrubbing your hands to the best of your ability with a “wet wipe” is superior to hand sanitizer, under normal circumstances, but for right now, when people are washing very frequently, and just want a back up after touching a doorknob, and are looking to kill a virus, not remove shmutz, hand sanitizer might be better.

8

Atul Gawande noted in his first book that water and soap are more effective than hand sanitizer, but medical folks are more likely to use the latter because it’s more convenient (IIRC). That probably is even more true for non-medical people.

9

RivkahChaya, you know that I was merely using the line about surgeons to make a point, right? The point was that if eliminating bacteria on hands made one more vulnerable to “bad” bacteria, which was puddleglum’s claim, surgeons would be in danger when they took off the gloves.

10

It may be odd, but it isn’t singular.
Friendly bacteria keep your skin’s defences in check

Is hand sanitizer bad for my microbiome?