When Using Hand Sanitizer, Be Sure To Rub Your Hands Until Dry

Cornwall, England, UK, Hand sanitizing point for the general public to use free of charge during Covid-19 in a Cornwall park area.

Keeping your hands clean can help reduce the likelihood that you will get sick, whether from a virus or something else. What researchers in the area call “hand hygiene” is best supported by the washing of hands, in particular the frequency and thoroughness of such washing.

But there are times when all of us are travelling, or are in our car, or just not around soap and a sink and so our best option is to reach for the hand sanitizer. But just how effective is it? For example, does it matter if you rub your hands a lot after you squirt some on?

A recent study by University of Arkansas researchers Francis Torko and Kristen E. Gibson—published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology—provides some new evidence about the use of hand sanitizers as well as hand hygiene, in particular how much you should rub your hands. Spoiler alert: you should rub them until dry.

The researchers compared a variety of hand sanitizers, the duration of hand rubbing, and different types of viruses. Building on their prior research that showed what’s called “in vitro” efficacy—basically putting the microorganisms with the sanitizer and seeing what happens—in their new research they used actual volunteers using their hands, which is not common in the published literature.

Overall, they found that—regardless of the type of sanitizer or hand rubbing time—hand sanitizers can be very effective to help control the spread of viruses that cause respiratory illnesses (things that impact the nose, throat, or lungs), but not very effective against the spread of viruses that cause gastrointestinal illness (things that impact the digestive system).

Gibson said of the findings: “Handwashing is always better than hand sanitizers alone,” but she added that “if you only have the option to use hand sanitizer, rubbing until dry will do a better job at killing viruses (and also likely bacteria).”

So the next time you reach for the hand sanitizer, remember to rub your hands completely dry if you can. And even better, frequently and thoroughly wash your hands using soap and water.

Forbes