Study finds hand hygiene not enough to prevent swine flu
As swine flu takes the world by storm, certain measures recommended by experts may fail to slow the spread of the disease in the long term, according to a new study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK. Presented in the BMC Public Health journal, the researchers believe that increased hand hygiene in primary schools will only provide a short reprieve in the fight to prevent the spread of infection. Data suggest that the risk of catching H1NI influenza in school children is double that in adults. This latest pilot study found that the children are not as diligent as grown-ups in adopting and maintaining stricter hand hygiene practices which are promoted by health authorities as an effective way to keep this and other illnesses at bay. Led by Dr Wolf-Peter Schmidt, the researchers sought to establish the current need for improved hand hygiene interventions, to determine the obstacles that diminish their effectiveness and to test their acceptability and feasibility. The team used qualitative methods to investigate the perceptions staff and students have of various hand hygiene protocols. Information was collected from four primary schools based in east London. Included in the assessment were practical issues and attitudes, which were obtained from group discussions and essay questions with the children, as well as from organised classroom hand hygiene activities. The researchers also interviewed school nurses. The team determined that teachers and nurses are more willing than parents to go the distance to raise awareness and help children understand how important it is to maintain hygiene practices. But an adequate supply of key products must be afforded to the schools so as to ensure the effectiveness of hygiene interventions. The results showed that basics issues of personal hygiene were taught in the schools, in particular for the smaller children. But competing health issues and time constraints hinder the implementation of intensive hygiene interventions, according to the researchers. 'Teachers' motivation to teach hygiene and enforce hygienic behaviour was primarily educational rather than immediate infection control. Children of all age groups had good knowledge of hygiene practices and germ transmission,' according to the study. 'Intensive hand hygiene interventions are feasible and acceptable, but only temporarily during a period of [a] particular health threat like an influenza pandemic and only if rinse-free hand sanitizers are used,' said lead author Dr Schmidt. 'In many settings there may be logistical issues in providing all schools with an adequate supply. Hand hygiene is important in particular for the prevention of gastro-intestinal infections. The effect of hand hygiene on the spread of influenza is less clear, but may be promoted as a precautionary measure, even in the absence of evidence,' he added. 'Our study highlights the practical issues of bringing improved hand hygiene to scale.'
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