Handwashing beats sanitiser for killing flu virus
The problem is that mucous protects the virus from the effects of alcohol
20th September 2019
Doctors who use hand sanitiser between patients are more likely to spread flu than those who take the time to wash their hands, an experiment suggests.
Japanese researchers conducted a series of lab and clinical tests to examine how much active influenza A virus remained after exposure to an ethanol-based disinfectant sanitiser compared with handwashing with an antiseptic cleanser.
They dabbed volunteers' fingers with either mucous or a saline solution containing flu virus, and then tested how long it took to deactivate the virus so it could no