Health & Wellbeing

Increased hand sanitizer use blamed for rise in gastro outbreaks

Increased hand sanitizer use blamed for rise in gastro outbreaks
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are thought to be less effective in removing norovirus than handwashing with soap and water
Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are thought to be less effective in removing norovirus than handwashing with soap and water
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Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are thought to be less effective in removing norovirus than handwashing with soap and water
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Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are thought to be less effective in removing norovirus than handwashing with soap and water

A number of countries are reporting increasing rates of viral gastroenteritis over recent months, and experts suggest greater use of hand sanitizers, known to have little effect on pathogens such as norovirus, may be partly responsible.

New data released by health authorities in the Australian state of Victoria is reporting a four-fold increase in gastroenteritis outbreaks across childcare facilities over the first few months of 2021, compared to the five-year average. Other countries such as New Zealand and Taiwan have also reported spikes in norovirus outbreaks over recent months.

Gastroenteritis is commonly caused by a virus called norovirus. It is known to be spread by touching one’s mouth after coming into contact with a contaminated surface or person. Parents of small children are certainly familiar with the illness as the virus is often spread by children, and child-care facilities are notorious hotbeds for clusters of infection.

“Norovirus causes vomiting and diarrhea,” explains Cathy Moir, chair of Australia’s Food Safety Information Council. “Cases occur all year round but they peak during winter possibly because that is when we tend to be in closer contact indoors allowing the virus to easily spread. Norovirus outbreaks are also common where people are in close living spaces, such as aged-care and child-care facilities, hospitals, cruise ships and community sporting events.”

Exactly why norovirus clusters seem to be increasing is unclear, but some experts are suggesting the growth in use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers may be playing a role. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020 more people than ever started frequently using hand sanitizers. Some estimates suggested demand for the product grew 16-fold in the first few months of the pandemic.

“I suspect many of us have become a bit complacent with handwashing and instead are slapping on alcohol-based hand sanitizer when we can, although this is anecdotal,” hypothesizes gastroenterologist Vincent Ho, in a recent article for The Conversation. “However, even though hand sanitizer is convenient, it doesn’t work as well against norovirus as thorough handwashing does.”

Researchers have long suspected alcohol-based hand sanitizers may not be as effective as soap and water handwashing in removing norovirus. A compelling 2011 survey of 161 long-term care facilities in the United States found those facilities using soap and water more often than hand sanitizers experienced less frequent norovirus outbreaks.

Peter Collignon, an infectious disease specialist from Australian National University, suggests hand sanitizers do not remove contaminants from soiled hands. He recommends people should not replace thorough hand washing with hand sanitizers, but instead says we should think about cleaning our hands before sterilizing them with alcohol-based solutions.

“Like all disinfecting, cleaning first is essential,” says Collignon. “You can’t just dip something in a magic solution and make it sterile. Clean, then sterilize. Gastro is one of those examples of sanitizer not working quickly and taking a while to penetrate, so handwashing is important.”

9 comments
9 comments
Lindsey Roke
What about the fact that everybody is also using the same hand sanitizer pump bottle.
Brian M
The other possibility is that people are less exposed to smaller doses of the virus or virus/bugs generally and don't have a chance to build up as much immunity, so a viral load that might not have triggered an illness previously might be able to do so now.

Next winter might well see more severe bouts of colds and flue when (if) we reduce social distancing etc.
Christian Lassen
Or it's the vaccine. Both doses of the vaccine, 5 days later my stomach was killing me and threw up a few times. Didn't think it was close enough to the vaccine to have been caused by it, but almost the exact same thing happened after the second dose, just not as bad.
Signguy
We were told years ago that the sanitizers are more harmful than regular hand washing, yet they are allowed to continue selling them with the same WRONG info. and claim they're better at killing germs. Now the rooster comes home to roost...
P51d007
I've been saying this for years. People rush around their children if they hear a cough or sneeze. You can't go three feet inside a school without seeing hand sanitizer. If you let yourself "get sick" once in a while, it helps your body by strengthening your immune system, to protect it the next time.
Same problem we have with very expensive antibiotics. Over use of them, has caused the little bugs to mutate that most antibiotics won't work now.
Just wash your hands, cover your mouth and get on with life.
pmshah
The sad part is 95 % of that have been on the market have proven ineffective in past tests. I have never used any except when a store re/ mall required me to just to be allowed to enter. I have known people to use these for decades and they are the most affected at slightest exposure. A sure shot way of killing /deactivating one's immune system. There is a major immune deficiency in families that use dishwashers as compared to those who do not.
BlueOak
Makes perfect sense. Go back to washing your hands thoroughly and skip the hand sanitizer.

Hasn’t it been shown the W-virus is spread airborne anyway and not via surfaces?
Worzel
I caused a panic among the staff of a hospital recently, when I refused to use their alcoholic hand sanitiser.
I had some cuts and scratches from brambles on my hands. Alcohol in raw cuts is not a nice experience!
Also, I concur with Lindsey Roke, everyone handling the same bottle is sort of counter productive.
Karmudjun
Everyone by now should understand that cleansers are great for most bacterial cleansing - while stripping away protective oils from your skin. Hand sanitizer and bacterial soaps do have a place - but not for repeated hand cleaning - soap and water, sing the alphabet twice - wipe on clean towels/paper towels.
Norovirus is notoriously hard to cleanse, and while you may have up to 4 years of immunity after one acute gastroenteritis episode, these single strand RNA viruses do mutate and it takes so little virus to cause disease - if two or three strains are around, you may catch each one after the other!