raisinbran20 asked
Antibacterial soaps and cleansers offer little protection against infectious disease, the media smugly reported this week. Consumers have once again had the wool pulled over their eyes by businesses exploiting the public’s hyper-health consciousness, intoned the media reports. Once again, though, the media focused on a sensational non-story while utterly missing the real and scurrilous story. The news hook for the media reports was a new study in the March 2 issue of the 'Annals of Internal Medicine' reporting that “tested antibacterial products did not reduce the risk for symptoms of viral infectious diseases in households.” The researchers compared antibacterial product use and infectious illness among 238 mostly Hispanic households in a New York City neighborhood. Even assuming that the result is correct, my response is a big, fat D-U-H! The products, after all, are called anti-b-a-c-t-e-r-i-a-l-s. They work on b-a-c-t-e-r-i-a ¯ not viruses. Antibacterial products are designed and marketed for, and can only reduce the risk of, illness from bacteria, not from viruses. The researchers, in fact, admitted (in the fine print) that their study “did not preclude the potential contribution of these products to reducing symptoms of bacterial diseases in the home.” Moreover, the study didn’t really prove that antibacterials don’t reduce the overall incidence of infectious disease. The number of households included in the study was small. The researchers aren’t sure that the antibacterial products were used regularly or correctly. The researchers don’t know the causes or sources of the reported illnesses. One can, after all, contract an infectious disease outside the home. The more interesting aspect of the study was wholly lost on reporters who always seem eager for a sensational story while typically lacking familiarity with pertinent facts. The study was launched four years ago ¯ I remember because Elaine Larson, the lead researcher, and I were on CNN’s 'Talk
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