Here are the articles:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/24/hand.washing.helpful/index.html
http://www.newsweek.com/id/215435
Very interesting reading and it makes perfect sense. I've always had these concerns myself:
1. Airborne - particles are very sneaky, can project far and are invisible. You and your family are coming along minding your own business, and you walk through someone's droplet infected airborn particles. You may not have heard, nor seen the sneeze and therefore could not avoid it. If it's contagious, you more than likely will pick it up.
2. Most emphasis on handwashing - we are major handwashers around here, but we don't just rely on that alone. We also practice a ton of other preventative measures to lead healthy lives. I know many people who are just relying solely on handwashing, and as the article reminds us, there are other ways to pick up germs. The one article actually mentions that a CDC scientist admits that the CDC does not have any evidence that washing hands helps in the spread of H1N1 at all. The reason for this is that influenza is not a very stable virus on the hands, so it doesn't get spread very often in this manner, whereas cold viruses have a different architecture in which they love the hands - they are spread very much on our hands. On the other hand, the article mentions a doctor who believes that perhaps 30% of inflluenza is transmitted by hand to face contact. If this 30% is true, then washing hands will certainly help, but it does show that the majority of influenza, 70%, is transmitted through air.
Hope you find these articles interesting - they are both an easy read. They are great because they point out that the H1N1 virus thrives in droplets of water, which is why it loves to be airborne. The articles also mention that when you breathe in airborn particles, you pick up huge amounts of the viruses. They both still remind us that handwashing is essential in helping us with germs and as a practice, it is something that should definitely be continued, but we need to be knowledgeable of the fact that influenza is a virus that thrives in the air, and so no amount of handwashing is going to be enough to actually stop its spread - this is why some schools are still suffering outbreaks, despite students being under mandatory, hourly hand saniziting or washing hands. Infected students are still in school sneezing or coughing, and this is why influenza rates are still high.
I think there might have been one more article that actually had the results of a study in which scientists were able to detect the actual transmission rates of airborne influenza vs. contact influenza, but I can't seem to find that article.
Happy health to all, Tiger
