French study- hand sanitisers reduce travellers’ sickness by almost 50%

A recent French study has confirmed that hand sanitisers dramatically reduce the risk of the dreaded travellers’ tummy bug when travelling to new and exotic places.

According to the authors of a recent French study, travellers’ diarrhoea is experienced by 20-50% of international travellers who visit developing tropical areas. The French researchers found however that travellers who used hand sanitiser reduced the incidence of travellers’ diarrhoea and/or vomiting by almost 50%. In other words, travellers who used hand sanitiser were half as likely to pick up the dreaded tummy bug associated with countries such as Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and Central and South America.

The hand sanitiser however must contain at least 60% alcohol. (100% natural squeakie contains 62% pure milk whey alcohol).

The French study, which included two separate surveys, was led by Delphine Henriey, a researcher with the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Mediterranee Infection in Marseille. Henriey and her colleagues first surveyed 200 French residents returning from developing countries via the Marseille international airport between January and April 2012.

The study team found that one of every three travellers used alcohol-based hand sanitizers. And about 17 % of travellers who used hand sanitizers, versus 30% who didn’t, reported  diarrhoea or vomiting at some time during their trip.

The French study is reported in the Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease Journal, July 2014.

The study numbers are small but the findings indicate how effective hand sanitisers can be at protecting ourselves from anything from travel tummy bugs and colds to food borne infections to transmitting bad bugs in hospitals. So before you travel, check the ingredients list of your hand sanitiser and make sure that it contains at least 60% alcohol, because less than this won’t kill 99.99% of germs. (100% natural squeakie has 62% alcohol with no petroleum or synthetically derived chemicals, and is loaded with natural moisturisers, so hands are clean of germs, free of nasty chemicals and given serious love).

Travellers should also remember the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) and WHO (World Health Organisation) recommendations- that clean hands is one of your best tickets to good health, and that you keep hands clean of germs by either soap and water or a hand sanitiser that includes at least 60% alcohol.  (NB- the CDC and WHO do not recommend alcohol free hand sanitisers because they are not as effective and their use may lead to bacterial resistance. There is no risk of bacterial resistance with alcohol because it kills germs on contact and leaves no antibacterial agent residue on your skin).

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