The stomach flu is upon us!
January is peak Norovirus season and the schools seem to have been hit pretty hard.
So what happens? Everyone says “wash your hands” and squirt a dollop of Purell on their hands or use a sanitizing hand wipe and move right along. Kids start using more hand sanitizer at school and you might clip a handy (pun intended) little personal sanitizer bottle on your kid’s backpack.
Bad news about those little bottles though.
Hand sanitizers can be helpful against a lot of illnesses, but as it turns out they aren’t really effective against norovirus.
I repeat, and this time, I’ll quote the CDC:
Many studies have found that sanitizers with an alcohol concentration between 60–95% are more effective at killing germs than those with a lower alcohol concentration or non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers may 1) not work equally well for all classes of germs (for example, Gram-positive vs. Gram-negative bacteria, Cryptosporidium, norovirus); 2) cause germs to develop resistance to the sanitizing agent; 3) merely reduce the growth of germs rather than kill them outright, or 4) be more likely to irritate skin than alcohol-based hand sanitizers
The New York Times quoted a study that found that workers were six times more likely to catch norovirus when using sanitizing gels than those who used soap and water.
Encourage your kids to take the time (the amount of time it takes to sing happy birthday twice) to wash their hands with soap or water rather than reaching for the sanitizer, especially if they know someone who has been sick.
If someone does become sick in your house, and you want to prevent it from spreading, you can disinfect with a solution of 5–25 tablespoons of household bleach [5.25%] per gallon of water. Wash all dirty laundry immediately for as long as your washer will allow (and go back to the soap and water after you touch it).
It’s gross out there, and if you’re trying to beat the dreaded bug this year, remember: soap, not sanitizer.
Hand Sanitizer is used under Creative Commons License 2.0
