Yes, those who have been following the medical literature knew it all along, and pretty much anyone who has been paying attention suspected it. But it doesn't hurt to repeat what should be common sense, and back it up with a little research:

http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2009/09/i_believe_i_mentioned_somethin.php

Funny you should post this, Art, because I just happened to be reading this article:

"Hand washing won't stop H1N1"

Food for thought.

Sould we call it "Breaking news" or

"Latest confirmation of something we've known since the time of Lister"?

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.

Handwashing is always important to avoid contact transmission of any illness. For me the hardest thing has always been to avoid touching your face (rubbing your eyes, itching your nose etc.), when in public settings. I've had to reprogram these commonly automatic behaviors. I also avoid people that are outwardly sick (sneezing, wiping their nose, runny eyes, coughing, diaphoretic etc.) in public. I do my best to stay as far away from them as possible, when I am forced to be in the same room, by sitting at the opposite end of the table, or auditorium.

For colleagues that are obviously ill, I politely suggest that they return home, and have gone so far as to contact their direct supervisor and request that they be sent home, so as to avoid contaminating our clients (since contaminating staff has always come across as being unimportant heretofore to upper management).

I also hate it when bathrooms do not offer paper towels, and have only sick-air blowers. I work in the health care field, and our handwashing is often vastly different than what passes as cleanliness to most people. We wash our hands for at least 20 secs, using copious amounts of soap and warm water, paying particular attention to scrubbing fingers and nail beds. We shut off the faucet using a paper towel (otherwise you are simply recontaminating your hands), and dispense paper towels before the hand washing begins (for the same reason we shut off the faucet with the paper towel). We also use the same paper towel to open the door on exit - if only all bathroom doors we pull to enter and push to exit...

I also refuse to shake hands with people that appear to be ill (I tell them that I am recovering from a cold and don't want to share it with them, so as to avoid offense) - and use hand sanitizer after every hand shake.

In public I always cough into the sleeve of my elbow, carry pocket kleenex at all times should I need to sneeze (I will sneeze into my elbow if necessary to avoid spreading my germs to all those around me). What else... some may consider this obsessive, but I almost never open a public door using my hands - I will either push it open using an elbow, and grasp the handle using the side of my non-dominant hand. I'm not nearly as crazy as Monk, but I am perhaps more aware of pathogen transmission than most

All this H1N1 stuff reminds me of something my great grandfather told me. He was alive during the 1918 Flu Pandemic. At that time, every member of his family had the flu, requiring him to help nurse them back to health. However, he never caught it, even when exposed to it daily.

When we asked him what his secret was, he said it was a little trick he learned in the Navy. A shot of whiskey in the morning and a shot of whiskey before bed.

I'm not sure if that really worked or not, but the guy rarely ever got sick and lived to the ripe old age of 95....so maybe there was something to it.

Paul, I am going to follow your grandfathers lead!!!

Handwashing certainly would reduce PASSING a disease, but it won't necessarily always help you from GETTING a disease.

For instance, if I use the restroom at the rail yard in Seattle, it is on the second floor. Even if I wash my hands at the sink, dry with the always-available paper towels and open the door with the same towels, I have to use a banister to go back down the stairs. I've seen people cough into their hand and then put their hand back on the banister.

I try to use the alcohol stuff once I get into the car. But multiply this issue through your life: doors, door handles, shopping carts and baskets, countertops, pens in banks, etc.

(And don't even bother suggesting not using the banister. I grew up in flat buildings and am very klutzy. I can fall going down the stairs, up the stairs, or simply standing on the stairs.)

Sue

The former MN State Epidemiologist Osterholm mentioned that H1N1 only survives for about a minute outside the body. So if you see someone cough on their hand, don't shake hands. During that minute, however, it is very transmissible in aerosols, so if someone coughs or sneezes anywhere near you, you're done for.

Masks work a lot better when they're worn by people who are ill, it slows down any aerosols they breath out so fewer viruses get in the air. If you're healthy and wearing a mask, you can still get it through the eyes.

But hand washing works quite well on most other illnesses, so keep doing it!

Here is a link to the Australian research

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12934606/Efficacy-of-Soap-and-Water-and-Alcohol-Based

Bill