Abstract
Whether or not pandemic flu is on its way, it’s likely we’ll see an increase in flu cases this winter, with all their attendant misery and cost. We have vaccines and antiviral drugs, but how effective are simple hygiene measures—hand washing and face masks? Tom Jefferson and colleagues have looked at the evidence, sifting through 2300 articles to find 51 studies worth considering (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39393.510347.BE). They conclude that these simple and low cost interventions can reduce spread, with the most impressive reductions in respiratory illness coming from high quality cluster randomised trials of hand washing in younger children. They extrapolate from case-control studies from the SARS outbreaks in …
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