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Researchers are advising healthcare professionals to consider the size of their hands when it comes to using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, to ensure adequate coverage by the product. In their study of whether the volume of alcohol-based handrub (ABHR) used by healthcare workers affects the residual bacterial concentration on their hands according to hand size, Bellissimo-Rodrigues and colleagues (2015) found that bacterial reduction was significantly lower for large hands compared with small hands, which suggests a need for customizing the volume of alcohol-based handrub for the most effective hand hygiene. It's an aspect of hand hygiene that many individuals may not have considered until now, according to study co-author Didier Pittet, MD, MS, of the University of Geneva Hospitals and faculty of medicine in Geneva, Switzerland; who says that this is a new topic that has not been fully explored by research.

More resources are urgently needed to fight the spread of Zika in the Americas and the apparently related increase in microcephaly and other complications, Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) told ministers of health today in a meeting convened by the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), in Montevideo, Uruguay.

How concerned should you be about the Zika virus? What research is being conducted on the virus? Is a vaccine the best or only approach to containing the virus? Scientists in Colorado State University's Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory are among the nation's experts on these topics, and they've provided responses to some of these questions, and more.