Hand Hygiene Cannot Stop Asthma, Study Shows

Although viruses are one of the main triggers of asthma exacerbations, aggressive hand hygiene did not appear to be enough to stop 'attacks'.  Dr. Susarla

School 'hand hygiene' plan shows no asthma benefit

An arsenal of hand sanitizers, hygiene education and good old-fashioned soap failed to prevent asthma attacks among school children in one Alabama county.

For children with asthma, the common cold is the top trigger of symptom attacks. So in theory, cleaner hands at school could mean fewer colds being passed around - and fewer asthma attacks.

But in a new clinical trial, researchers found that kids at schools with a "hand hygiene" plan, including alcohol-based hand sanitizers, suffered asthma attacks just often as their peers at other schools.

The findings are not, however, the final word, according to Lynn B. Gerald, a professor of health promotion sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson who led the study.

That's because the trial hit an obstacle when the H1N1 "swine" flu epidemic broke out right at the study's outset: All of the schools in the trial became a lot more vigilant about clean hands, Gerald said.

Schools that weren't part of the hand-hygiene program started putting hand sanitizer on the list of school supplies given to parents.

"Hand sanitizer became ubiquitous in schools," Gerald said.

So, she told Reuters Health, it's hard to draw conclusions about whether hand sanitizers, added to old-fashioned hand washing, might prevent some asthma attacks.

The sanitizers and soap used in the trial were provided to schools for free by Akron, Ohio-based GOJO, which makes the Purell brand hand sanitizers.

GOJO "believes there is great benefit in establishing the effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions under real-world conditions and supports scientific studies that take that approach," the company told Reuters Health.

"We agree with the conclusion that the results of this study were highly confounded by increased overall hand hygiene practices, even in the usual-care schools, as a result of the H1N1 pandemic," they said in an emailed statement.

The findings appear in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

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