hand sanitizer

[sheri-baby]

I read somewhere that clorox bleach is the only thing that will kill the Norwalk Virus....actually i've seen it more than once.....even boiling temperatures isn't enough.....so why do we think that alcohol based hand sanitizers will kill sv germs...is there any info on that subject somewhere?

[chicajojobe]

I couldn't find anything on this other then recommendations to wash hands and use alcohol based hand sanitizers.



That's a scary thought though. I mean you can't wash like your food
with bleach and if even heat won't kill it then even properly cooked
food could have active norwalk!



If that were true it'd be everywhere wouldn't it? I hope that isn't true. [img]smileys/smilies_10.gif[/img][img]smileys/smilies_06.gif[/img]


Edited by: chicajojobe

[sheri-baby]

well not to scare anyone but even on the Germ X bottle it says it kills bacteria....Norwalk is a virus!!...I hope they could invent something to kill viruses....I would definetly pay top $$.

[shiva]

I recently saw in Parenting magazine an add for Purell that said something alone the lines of "Kills virus responsible for most childhood stomach bugs"


Also.. We are forgetting that OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM KILLS VIRUSES if we eat well, drink water and get rest. And it will work pretty good even if we don't

[blueiz25]

Temperatures over of 140 degrees farenhieght will kill the virus. Thouroughly waching your hands will remoe the virus. Lets not get into a panic here just because hand sanitizers will NOT kill viruses. Its evident by all of us here that we take darn good measures to keep from getting this and so far we have not for themost part. I a surprised this is just now coming up because I have posted about this subject several times.

[mystikal star]

I'm ALWAYS loaded with hand sanitizer and use it like crazy. It kills me when I read that it doesn't work for stomach viruses. But I have read in magazines that I've gotten that it does help kill the stomach virus. Ahh. I want to just stop eating altogether and cut my hands off.

[blueiz25]

PPL don't freak. Magazines are not a sure fire source of reliable information. Go to the CDCs website and read about noroviruses (all stomachviruses are under this category) Hand sanitizers do kill things that cause food poisons. Just remeber how long it has been since you had a stomach bug and continue doing what you have been doing to prevent them. Being more knowledgable about things should relieve you instead of making you worry more. Now we all know that washing hands is the number one stopper of the stomach virus. Continue using your hand sanitizer if it gives you comfort, but also continue to wash your hands. Do not substitute hand sanitizer for washing your hands unless you have no way to wash your hands. There are lots of things that can make you sick other than viruses. Hand sanitizer kills these other things.

[japa]

My sister is a microbiologist. She has worked with HIV and yellow fever, so she knows nothing beyond common knowledge of stomach viruses. But she told me that alcohol does kill bacteria and some viruses, and the hand sanitizers are alcohol-based as we know. However, she says that in her lab, they must use bleach for sanitizing because that is the only 100% effective eradicator ofall bacteria and viruses.


When you wash your hands, I believe that the point is not that you are killing the viruses and bacteria but that you are washing them down the drain. Hence, the requirement that you wash for at least 30 seconds which is long enough to send things down the drain. It's the same thing with washing food. You need to wash the germs down the drain, so that they won't be on the food anymore. Therefore, good old water does the trick, and we don't need to put alcohol and bleach on our foods, thank goodness.


And as shiva told us, there is our handy dandy immune system with cells called T-cells that fight invading viruses and bacteria and kill them. So whatever does not get bleached, alcohol"ed," rinsed away, or demolished by our immune system is probably going to be pretty slim, don't you think?


Now, the funniest part of all this is that my sister says that in biology, it remains a subject of debate as to whether viruses can even be considered a form of life. This is because they cannot reproduce without invading a host cell. Therefore, some biologists don't really believe they classify as alive. My sister believes they do, but she didn't explain why to me. Oh well.

[roxxi277]

I hope this isn't too off the topic here. lol. I am scared
to use hand sanitizer. I used it for one winter, about 3 years
ago. I used it before eating, and any time I left my house and
went to a store. I still washed my hands with soap and water
too. I ended up getting Strep throat twice, and a HORRIBLE
sv*. I stopped using it that very day. I figured either I
was doing something wrong, or the sanitizer didn't work. Now it
has become superstitious for me. My boyfriend uses it all the
time, and I'm careful not to. I'm sure sanitizers do their job, but I
just can't get myself to use it again. Carrie

[sillygirl]

I actually did find a hand sanitizer that says it kills Norwalk. The website you can find it at it www.antisepticausa.com. I bought some a while ago. I'm not sure if it really works, but I like it better than Purell because my hands don't dry out as much.

[jesskali]

Washing your hands is much better than using hand sanitizer, but there are times when washing isn't possible. I'm not sure if it truly helps or not, but it is better than nothing. I will continue using some sort of sanitizer when I am not able to wash my hands. Our hospitals and most of our doctor's offices have sanitizer canisters mounted on the wall for the doctor's/nurses to use, so it has to help some!

Jess

[ontariogirl]

I use the hand sanitizer all the time and with the stomach virus's going around I haven't caught the bug at all. I freaked out when the flu was in my home and some how some way I didn't catch it. Iwash my hands singing the song Yankee Doodle Dandy all the time. It got to the point that I sprayingCherry flavour Lysol on my hands, I wouldn't recommend doing that! I did catch the miserable cold a few times... go figure.

[tiina]

Hi!


There's a thing about hand sanitizers that worries me or anything that sanitizes for that matter. I've heard that when you use something that sanitizes it only makes the bacteria (and viruses?) develop resistance to the sanitizing substance andmakes thembecome stronger. I don't know if this only applies to cleaning your house with sanitizing stuff or also to hand sanitizers. Atleast here in Finland they recommend that you don't clean your house or wash your dishes with sanitizing stuff.


When I broughtthis up with my American friend he said that this can't be right as theysanitize stuff in hospitals all the time. But that got me thinking...there are these really bad bacteria in hospitals that sometimes kill people that have had operations. I was wondering if the bacteria could possibly be so strong because theyuse sanitizers in hospitals so much.


I don't knowso could someby who knows more about this tell me if it's ok to use hand sanitizer on a regular basis?


Tiina

[sheri-baby]

I've heard that a lot also, I wonder if that's why sv's nowadays seem to be worse than many years ago.[img]smileys/smilies_25.gif[/img] Edited by: sheri-baby

[one who squeaks]

Alcohol-based antimicrobialproducts are not considered a public health problem at this time. Not only does the alcohol evaporate rapidly, but it evaporates completely. This means thebacteria are killed before they know what hit them, and because there is no residual antibacterial effect after evaporation, there's no lower dose of alcohol left for them to adapt to. Many microbes become resistant to substances when they encounter a non-lethal dose. If they die before encountering the non-lethal dose, the chances of them developing a resistance to that particular substanceis pretty low. Never fear. [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img]


As for hospital bugs, the big problem is theheavy use of antibiotics. Scenario: You're being treated for a staph aureus infection that is resistant to amoxicillin. Somewhere along the way, you contaminate a surface. The surface is later cleaned, but a few bacterial cells survive; the nextpatient picks up the amoxi-resistant strain and, as a result, is treated with Cipro. The staph develops resistance to Cipro. The patient contaminates a surface. The next patient picks up a strain that is now resistant to both amoxicillin and Cipro.
Also, since people in the hospital are likely to be sickandhave compromised immune defenses, they can pick up a number of colorful bacteria. Certain infections are very difficult to clear due to their location-- for example,an infection deep in the lung is harder tosnag than an infection in the intestines or bloodstream. The bacteria in the lung are exposed to a much smaller dose of antibiotic than those in the intestines/bloodstream/etc. The smaller the dose, the more likely the bacteria will survive; the higher the survival rate, the more likely they are to develop resistance.


I'll shut up now. ^^;


*Back on track* I haven't been able to find much info on alcohol-based cleansers versus noroviruses. But then, I haven't looked very hard. It's kind of aggravating that most websites give you the good old, "Kills 99% of germs!" spiel. Too vague. Iwant to know exactly WHAT it kills, lol. XD