HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS?

On the BBC there is an article from America that is likely to make hospital administrators in Australia sit up and take notice.

It may also start a devastating slide in the performance of soap and detergent companies on the stock market

Lately there has been a campaign in Australia to remind staff and patients and indeed visitors alike to WASH YOUR HANDS when you are in the hospital to ensure that the spread of bacteria and viruses is minimized and hygiene preserved.

I am taking the liberty of reproducing some parts of this article to try and assist all those who may have some habits that they need to change to live in hope that maybe, just for once, there really IS a technological solution that does NOT involved them once again having to change their behaviour.

Adding a special "spiky" coating to surfaces can kill bacteria and viruses, research suggests.

US scientists found painting on spike-like structures kept the surfaces infection-free.

The spikes, they believe, rupture bacteria and virus particles on contact, inactivating them.

The team, writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest their findings could help to fight the spread of diseases.

The researchers painted glass with long chains of molecules, called polymers, which anchored to the surface to form tentacle-like spikes.

When the team then applied the surfaces with E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus (both common disease-causing forms of bacteria) and the influenza virus, they found the coating killed them with 100% efficiency within minutes

Of course an English kill joy:-

Professor Ian Jones, a microbiologist from Reading University, said: "This is an interesting paper, from the point of view that it is a new and simple approach to fighting infection that seems to be effective against both bacteria and viruses."

However, he said he was less convinced the spikes were piercing the particles and thought another, more chemical, mechanism could be at play.

"The other thing that is important to find out is the longevity of the effect. If a toilet door handle, for example, is coated with this material, would it last for days, hours, weeks? It would be vital to know how often it needs to be applied."

So, while we wait - it is important to keep asking - HAVE YOU WASHED YOUR HANDS?