Is hand washing all it's cracked up to be?
Infection Control Weekly Monitor, September 23, 2009
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Despite urging from the CDC that consistent hand hygiene is the best way to prevent transmission of the flu, some experts argue there is no evidence people can catch influenza from germs on their hands, according to a Newsweek article.
Arthur Reingold, head of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley, and codirector of the CDC-funded California Emerging Infections Program, argues that people are much more likely to catch influenza by breathing in microscopic particles.
Reingold does not dismiss the importance of hand hygiene for general prevention from everyday bugs, but he feels the CDC message gives the false impression that hand washing is the only way to prevent transmission. He believes surgical masks could be more helpful in containing airborne exposures.
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