Quote:
Originally Posted by firefighterwife
If the hand sanitizers main mechanism of action (which all are not) is ethanol, then I disagree with LisaM. Ethanol, by its very nature...and why it is used in aseptic cell culture labs on both porous and non-porous surfaces...lyses cell walls and viral coats(which kills bacteria and viruses) as it evaporates.
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For -some- cell types and virus, it does that. But not all. Which is how Simon wound up with c. diff. in the hospital. The only prevention for c. diff. transmission is soap and water handwashing. You have to rinse it off. You cannot kill it with hand sanitizer. The nurses at his hospital do not have convenient access to sinks, so they rely on hand sanitizer. The c. diff. bacterium forms a shell that makes it immune, in a way that fungi more commonly do. And attacking it does make it release toxins, which what makes it so incredibly toxic during/after a round of antibiotics.