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Thursday, August 14, 2014

Study: Hand sanitizer not effective in reducing classroom absences.

USA Today (8/13, Healy) reports that a new study in PLOS Medicine suggests that “putting alcohol-based hand sanitizers in classrooms in the hopes of reducing school absences due to illness may not be worth the expense in high-income countries where clean water for washing hands is readily available.” Researchers compared two groups of New Zealand school children and “found that the rate of absences due to illness was similar in both the intervention schools that received the dispensers and the control schools that washed with soap and water.”
        The CNN (8/13, Wade) “The Chart” blog reports the researchers noted that “an unexpected flu epidemic during the course of the study may have affected the findings” by creating “heightened awareness about the benefits of clean hands.” Also covering the story are ABC World News (8/12, story 9, 0:10, Muir), TIME (8/13, Sifferlin) and HealthDay (8/13, Preidt).

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