Killing germs on the go!

Our world is a fast paced one, and that requires us to be on the go. This tends to mean we take for granted important tasks; such as washing our hands on a regular basis. In the past year, USF administrators have made a concerted effort to give students and faculty means in which they can help prevent the spread of germs and bacteria by placing hand sanitizing stations throughout the USF campus. For our group picture we chose one of the many hand sanitizer stations that are placed all over campus, the one featured is actually right outside our classroom in the Public Health building on the second floor! According to the CDC, “Hand sanitizers were effective in reducing gastrointestinal illnesses in households, in curbing absentee rates in elementary schools, and in reducing illnesses in university dormitories.” (Reynolds SA, Levy F, Walker ES. Hand sanitizer alert [letter]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2006 Mar [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no03/05-0955.htm)

If student and faculty use of these hand sanitizer stations would result in just one less sickness per month, we believe they have already done their job. That one less sickness can translate into a viral or bacterial infection not being spread to others, which in turn results in less use of medical care in treating a potential sickness in the public health arena on a secondary or tertiary level. Hand sanitizers show the importance of primary prevention in public health.

This by no means implies that hand sanitizers should take the place of normal hand washing. Hand sanitizers should be used as an additional method to fight the spread of germs and help us keep up with our fast paced society.