And this morning, this new article also caught my eye--"Study: H1N1 flu transmission varies by type of exposure". The results indicate that only a third of the flu infections were the result of hand contact, which hand washing might have prevented. Most of the rest were droplet transmission, like being around someone with the flu who is sneezing or coughing. That's a much higher proportion of flu cases than I had personally thought until now.

I have to admit that these two articles are rather eye opening to me. Not to downplay hand washing, since it is a powerful tool to reduce many other kinds of infections that make us sick and I'll continue to keep my hands clean and keep them away from my face. But as someone was saying in that first article I cited, we also don't want to fool ourselves into a false sense of security by believing that our scrupulous hand washing provides highly effective protection against the flu, pandemic or seasonal.

When there's an uptick in flu cases in my own area, I think this news will make me think twice about certain activities for a while. Staying fit is always important to a healthy immune system, but working out in the crowded gym after work may not be the smartest thing when flu is going around in your area, even using lots of hand sanitizer. When flu is common, a run in the park might have a better risk/benefit profile during those periods of heightened flu transmission.