It is amazing to realize that between 10,000 and 10 Million microorganisms are living on each hand. Hand Sanitizers prevent illness by killing almost every one of them.
One of the greatest advances in the history of Medicine was the discovery of microorganisms and their connection to disease. Less than 150 years ago, surgeons were performing surgery without even washing their hands. The death rate from infection was very high. Major communicable diseases were spread from person to person without any check at all. Once the connection between these little unseen killers and the havoc they create in the human body was realized, we entered a whole new era of health and longer life.
It has long been recommended that hands be washed with soap and hot water in a number of situations. Surgeons scrub their hands with antibacterial soap and hot water for a long time before donning gloves. This shows the importance of hand cleaning since unless the gloves are punctured, the hands are protected. Laws require food handlers and medical personnel to wash their hands with soap and hot water before beginning work and after visiting the bathroom.
Hand sanitizers are products that are intended for use when hand washing is impossible or impractical. Most hand sanitizers are made from an alcohol based gel that can be applied directly to the hand and rubbed in and dried without the use of water. Do hand sanitizers prevent disease and illness? Since a substance containing at least 65% alcohol by volume, and most hand sanitizers do, kills almost 99% percent of all bacterial and virus that it comes into contact with, the answer would have to be a resounding yes.
It is possible to go to extremes and there are some famous cases of people who have developed a "germ phobia" to the point that it has impacted their whole life. It is just impossible to kill every