All sorts of treatments are being administered, with varying levels of success, but somehow it seems that this is an ideal time to revisit the old comparison between "an ounce of prevention" and "a pound of cure."

A writer in DISCOVERY magazine stated in a recent article that "...recent events have shown that even ordinary hand-washing may once again become a matter of getting really sick or staying well."

Reports from health experts last summer reflected that severe illnesses, and even death, may have been prevented among children in Minnesota and North Dakota through the simple exercise of washing their hands. This would have been an effective preventive, medical practitioners insist, despite the fact that the deadly bacterium which caused the illnesses and deaths had developed a resistance to the antibiotic methicillin. Constant use is rendering many of the antibiotics ineffective over a period of time, as people become more dependant upon them, and less determined to practice good hygiene. Ralph Cordell, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has been quoted as stating, "With the possible exception of immunization, hand-washing is the most effective disease-preventing measure anyone can practice."

It has been estimated that patting contaminated ground beef into a hamburger can leave a residue of about 10 million disease-causing bacteria on your hands. The bacteria can survive on fingertips for about an hour, but much longer on the palms. Then, the germs that have been picked up, particularly cold and flu viruses, wait patiently until you put your hands on your nose, eyes or mouth, where they can set up housekeeping in the delicate membranes, infiltrate cells, and begin to duplicate themselves. But even in the palms of your hands, 400 to 500 sweat glands per square centimeter of skin pour out moisture onto the palms, irrigating bacteria. And on the backs of our hands, sebaceous glands and hair follicles make even better hiding places for bacteria. And worst of all is the space beneath the fingernails, in areas known as "subungual spaces," where 95 percent of all bacteria on our hands is found.

Researchers reportedly estimate that it takes a full five minutes of washing to flush out, shed or kill 99 percent of the transient organisms, a period of time far beyond that used by most people. Even most physician, according to studies, don�t wash long enough, often enough or well enough. One study showed that doctors and nurses in an emergency room washed up less than a third of the time after touching patients, and when they did, the average wash-and-rinse was only 9.5 seconds.