The Lemon Fool

That's not quite what it says, but the pervasive and largely pointless use of hand sanitiser against covid has apparently become a substitute in some peoples' minds for.. hand washing. And has thus been implicated in a huge rise of tummy infections.

New data released by health authorities in the Australian state of Victoria is reporting a four-fold increase in gastroenteritis outbreaks across childcare facilities over the first few months of 2021, compared to the five-year average. Other countries such as New Zealand and Taiwan have also reported spikes in norovirus outbreaks over recent months.

One study even suggests that using both methods simultaneously — washing your hands with soap and water and also applying hand sanitiser — actually increases the number of bacteria on your hands, though the exact way this occurs is unknown.

Read all about it https://theconversation.com/gastro-outb ... ins-159329

V8

88V8 wrote:That's not quite what it says, but the pervasive and largely pointless use of hand sanitiser against covid has apparently become a substitute in some peoples' minds for.. hand washing. And has thus been implicated in a huge rise of tummy infections.plains-159329

But the article is mostly waffle and presents little or no evidence for such a conclusion AFAICS.

It could even be that they are making that classic mistake of confusing cause and effect. What if it turns out that tummy upsets cause hand sanitiser?

I must say that since the beginnings of the outbreak in March 2020, I have used hand sanitizer as little as possible, usually only on the relatively rare occasions when I have had to shop in somewhere like M & S. I find myself washing my hands more often but I find that sanitizer does my skin no good. I have not noticed any tummy upsets although I would not be surprised.

Dod

When I first saw the thread title, my first thought was “stop drinking hand sanitiser then!”

Since using hand sanitisers and washing my hands with soap so often, due to Covid precautions, I now find I have trouble in my phone recognising my biometric finger print. A case of "prunitis", me thinks.

Perhaps one should stick to soap and water when available.

I do have a strong suspicion that wiping our brass door handles with sanitiser wipes, is accelerating the the brass finish wearing off.

88V8 wrote:the pervasive and largely pointless use of hand sanitiser against covid has apparently become a substitute in some peoples' minds for.. hand washing. And has thus been implicated in a huge rise of tummy infections.

There's no cure for stupidity, unfortunately. You can put it on the bottles that sanitisers aren't a substitute for washing, and you can write it on the public dispensers, and you can tell them all the same thing until you're blue in the face, but it won't change what they want to believe.

I suspect that people are getting a feeling of comfortable reassurance when they use the sanitisers, and somehow that's enough to make them think "job done". Personally, when I use a sanitiser, my first thought is "where can I find a washbasin so I can wash this horrible greasy stuff off my hands?"

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:
I suspect that people are getting a feeling of comfortable reassurance when they use the sanitisers, and somehow that's enough to make them think "job done". Personally, when I use a sanitiser, my first thought is "where can I find a washbasin so I can wash this horrible greasy stuff off my hands?"

BJ

I find similar. My twin objections to the stuff are that now it is being made in really large volume and the price levered down, the quality of it has plummeted. The muck in the dispensers at both my local M&S and Waitrose branches is truly awful. It dries into sticky residue on one's hands and the miasma surrounding people fooled into using it has to be smelled to be believed - it STINKS. And I too can't wait to get home to wash it off my hands.

Oh.... wash my hands!

(Or hash my wands, as I prefer to say )

P.S. I noticed a statement by the CDC a few months back that they had yet to positively identify and verify a case of fomite transmission of coronavirus. Fomite transmission appears to be one of the few aspects of coronavirus turning out to be a non-problem. Or does anyone here know otherwise?

Mike4 wrote:Fomite transmission appears to be one of the few aspects of coronavirus turning out to be a non-problem. Or does anyone here know otherwise?

I'd heard something similar, although I can't think how they could know conclusively unless they daubed the virus on every touch surface in a building and then sent a series of healthy volunteers in to see whether they caught it?

Fomite? Naaaah, I never touch the stuff anyway. Draught Legsprawler's my brew.

BJ

My local M&S has really nice hand sanitiser - smells like Eau de Cologne
I use it when I'm at music festivals, but always wash my hands with liquid soap and water when I get a chance

Spet0789 wrote:When I first saw the thread title, my first thought was “stop drinking hand sanitiser then!”

.... but the President told me to! Oh now you are quite correct, it was disinfectant more generally.

On a serious note, some forms of gastroenteritis can be psychological, brought on by anxiety. So a period of a global pandemic would certainly increase overall anxiety levels.