Curiously Awesome

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There are some new studies recently published in the American Journal of Infection Control demonstrating how important hand washing is in preventing the transmission of disease in a household setting.

This is new because the majority of prior studies on the importance of hand washing have implicated touch as the single most important disease transmission route but have focused on workers in the food and health industries.

In one study researchers tested various household surfaces for traces of the polio virus in homes where infants had recently been vaccinated against the disease. The weakened virus from the vaccine is shed in infants’ feces for a short time afterwards so traces of the disease would indicate exposure to the infants’ feces. Researchers found that 13 percent of bathroom, kitchen and living room surfaces tested positive for polio.

In another study, researchers tested toilet bowls in homes where at least one person had been diagnosed with a salmonella infection. As much as three weeks after the infection, toilet bowls were still found to be contaminated with the bacteria. This suggests that even long after an infection has passed, it still has the capability to spread throughout a house.

In a third study a volunteer touched a door handle that had been contaminated with a virus and then shook hands with a number of other volunteers. Tests later determined that this spread the virus to six other people.

The main results show us that people should focus on cleaning key disease transmission surfaces in the home like doorknobs, faucets and toilet flush handles. In addition to washing their hands after sneezing or using the toilet, or before eating, people also need to do so after changing diapers, cleaning up after pets, touching trash cans, or cleaning any surfaces or utensils that might have come into contact with waste or raw food.