People using hand sanitizer instead of — rather than as well as — washing their hands have in part been blamed for an outbreak of viral gastroenteritis in Victoria.
Last month, Victorian health authorities warned that gastroenteritis cases were up four-fold from the five-year average.
Yesterday, the Victoria Department of Health said that viral gastroenteritis was continuing to spread, with 389 outbreaks in childcare and early education centers so far this year — an increase of 140 over the previous month.
Victoria’s executive director for communicable disease, Bruce Bolam, said that handwashing with soap and water is still the best personal hygiene method to minimize the chance of spreading the virus.
“A good old-fashioned scrub with soap and warm water is the best way to remove the gastro virus from our hands and prevent passing it on to infect others,” Bolam said.
While alcohol-based sanitizer is helpful in tackling COVID-19, it is much less effective against bugs such as norovirus, which is the predominant cause of the current childcare gastroenteritis outbreaks, he said.
Viral gastroenteritis is highly infectious. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, headache and muscle aches.
They can take up to three days to develop and usually last from one to two days, sometimes longer. In rare cases, it can develop into a much more serious illness.
Infants or children in early childhood services or school as well as staff who develop vomiting or diarrhea should stay at home for at least 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped. Anyone recovering from gastroenteritis should avoid visiting hospitals, early childhood services and aged care facilities to avoid spreading the infection to those most vulnerable.
Australian National University professor of infectious diseases Peter Collignon said there is no point using hand sanitizer to disinfect hands without cleaning them first, as hand sanitizer does not remove the buildup of dirt and other contaminants.
“If you have soiled hands, you need to wash them with soap and water before sanitizing,” he said. “Alcohol doesn’t work as well as soap and water for killing norovirus as it does for other viruses.”
“Like all disinfecting, cleaning first is essential. You can’t just dip something in a magic solution and make it sterile. Clean, then sterilize,” he added. “Gastro is one of those examples of sanitizer not working quickly and taking a while to penetrate, so handwashing is important.”
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS