4 ms·
That article pretty much concludes that hand-washing doesn't work, not only of because of practical factors (hospital staff cannot possible stick to the regimen
by Luc 17y ago
That article pretty much concludes that hand-washing doesn't work, not only of because of practical factors (hospital staff cannot possible stick to the regimen of hand-washing that would be required), but also because even the strictest cleaning leaves enough bacteria or viruses on the hands for transmission to happen.
- mhb 17y agoMy impression, from the article, was that if the strict washing procedure was followed, then hand washing was effective. Anyway, it is clear from the article that using alcohol gel works and is much more convenient and yet compliance is still not great.
- teeja 17y agoDepends on what hands are washed with. Semmelweis used what we call chlorine bleach, Lister carbolic acid (dangerous stuff). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignac_Semmelweis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignac_Semmelweis Semmelweis's strategy reduced childbed fever in his ward by 90%. (Then he got all pompous about it and was ignored ... unlike Lister.) Since busy people can't wash all the time, a device like the one in the article would make antisepsis a lot harder to resist.