• Travel Med Infect Dis · Sep 2014

    Does the use of alcohol-based hand gel sanitizer reduce travellers' diarrhea and gastrointestinal upset?: A preliminary survey.

    • Delphine Henriey, Jean Delmont, and Philippe Gautret.
    • Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille, CHU Nord, Pôle Infectieux, Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, 13015 Marseille, France.
    • Travel Med Infect Dis. 2014 Sep 1; 12 (5): 494-8.

    IntroductionUse of alcohol-based hand sanitizer is recommended by the CDC to reduce the risk for travellers' diarrhoea, but its effectiveness has not been assessed.Materials And MethodsWe investigated the potential protective effect of hand sanitizer use on the occurrence of diarrhoea and/or vomiting in 200 international travellers, who were returning home, at an international airport. We also conducted a knowledge, aptitude and practice survey about hand gel use among international travellers consulting for pre-travel advice at a specialized clinic.Results200 returning travellers were included of which 32.5% declared having used alcohol-based hand sanitizer during travel. Travellers who used hand sanitizer reported diarrhoea and vomiting significantly less frequently than those who did not (17% vs. 30%, OR = 0.47; 95% CI [0.21-0.97], p = 0.04). A total of 257 travellers consulting for pre-travel advice were included. A majority of travellers knew that hand sanitizer may be used for hand hygiene and had already used hand sanitizer; 72% planned to bring hand sanitizer during their next travel.ConclusionsUse of hand sanitizer is highly acceptable by travellers and is associated with a reduction in the incidence of travellers' diarrhoea and/or vomiting.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…