5 Places A GP Always Brings Hand Sanitiser During Flu Season

It’s happening again. The tissues have started coming out in force on my bus rides. Friends send stuffy voice notes to apologise – “I can’t make it,” they sniff pitifully. “There’s something going round”.

Though you can catch the flu at any point in the year, it’s especially common in the colder months. Spending more time indoors with the windows shut increases the spread of disease, while lower vitamin D supplies mean our bodies are less able to fight bugs off.

The NHS recommends common-sense advice, like washing your hands often and not sharing personal items like towels with sick people, to keep colds at bay. And if you don’t have access to soap and warm water (the most effective hand-washing method), alcohol-based hand sanitiser is a great tool too.

Here, HuffPost UK asked Dr Donald Grant, a GP and senior clinical advisor at The Independent Pharmacy, where he brings hand sanitiser during flu season (and when you can leave it at home).

This, he said, is an “obvious” pick.

“Handrails, poles, seat backs, and ticket machines are touched by hundreds of people a day, and buses and trains are often crowded and poorly ventilated in autumn and winter, giving flu viruses plenty of opportunity to spread”.

Keeping a bottle of hand sanitiser in your coat pocket or handbag gives you a chance to “clean your hands once you get off, before you touch your face, eat or check your phone”.

This transfer of germs – from hands to eyes, nose, or mouth – can make cold transmission especially likely, as it delivers germs almost directly to your mucous membranes.

Not only are these filled with both people and things multiple people have touched, but self-service checkout screens can be a real bug-fest, too.

Think of all those sweaty weights and unwiped surfaces, not to mention the pools and saunas whose warm, damp environments provide the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

Not only that, but we breathe more heavily when working out, potentially expelling more disease-carrying saliva.

Basically, Dr Greenyer said, we should bring hand sanitiser “anywhere with shared touchscreens, such as self-checkouts and cash machines”.

These places are filled with people who are 1) already likelier to be sick and 2) packed tightly together in an enclosed space. Therefore, it’s best to use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser in these places, “both to protect yourself and the vulnerable people around you”.

However, the doctor stressed that hand sanitiser “should never be used as a replacement for handwashing, as [soap and warm water] is still the most effective option for limiting the spread of bacteria”.

With that said, Dr Greenyer told us that “There’s no need to sanitise constantly”.

1. Parks,
2. Open-air markets, or
3. The high street

are much safer, he added. This is because “viruses disperse more easily in fresh air and you’re touching far fewer shared surfaces”.

The GP ended: “It’s also worth remembering that flu spreads mainly through droplets from coughs and sneezes, so good hand hygiene works best alongside other simple habits, like catching sneezes in a tissue, staying home when you’re unwell and getting the flu vaccine if you’re eligible”.

And when needed, a little bottle of hand sanitiser could help to protect you on the go.