Posted By Stephen Gilpin This may sound like a daft question but how much of a help/use are standard anti bacterial wipes/gels/soaps etc in a bid to prevent persons from being infected with this strain of pathogen please. I realise that good old fashioned health monitoring and obervations for flu like sympoms and people not travelling or attending work etc if they have symptoms are the most effective way for reducing the risk of this flu. but all the advice sources appear to advise people to stock up on these gels/wipes etc but how valid are they to reduce/remove the liklihood of the virus spreading for person to person/object etc

Posted By Chris Packham Several of the alcohol based sanitising gels have been tested against the flu virus and found to work well. The important thing is that you use enough each time and work it well around to cover the whole hand. Use the same technique as you would for hand washing (see the excellent HSE poster on this). Rub until the product has completely evaporated. However, remember that alcohol is quickly inactivated by organic matter, so these sanitisers will only work on relatively clean hands. A recent study showed that ordinary liquid soap (not the anti-septic type) to be as effective at removing flu virus from the hands. So where hands are soiled washing with soap and water is the correct approach. Chris