Infectious disease doctor: Take off the gloves, wash your hands instead
CARBONDALE — Dr. Sarah Altamimi, an infectious disease physician at Southern Illinois Healthcare, knows a good way you can protect yourself from COVID-19: Stop wearing vinyl or latex gloves in public.
“Wearing gloves does not add any level of security or protection, and it might add harm,” Altamimi said.
She explained that COVID-19 is a respiratory virus. It is spread through respiratory droplets. When you touch items in public, like the front door of the grocery store, the bank ATM or groceries, you can pick up the virus.
“The virus does not transmit through touch or on skin," Altamimi said. "It only enters the body through mucous membranes like a nose or around the eyes.”
The gloves become contaminated and then the person touches his or her eyes or nose. Altamimi also said the virus can live longer on gloves than on the skin, according to research studies.
When health care providers wear gloves while caring for a patient with an infectious disease, they sanitize their hands, put the gloves on, then sanitize their hands again after taking off the gloves. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization have instructions on their websites for how to properly don and doff (put on and take off) gloves.
Altamimi said health care providers have touchpoints that require them to change gloves when working with a patient. They change every time they touch an IV, computer keyboard and other things.
For the average person outside a medical setting, the best protection is to wash your hands often or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Altamimi said to protect yourself from COVID-19, follow these guidelines:
Stay home: Don’t leave your home unless it is really necessary, such as going to the grocery store, pharmacy or to a doctor’s appointment if you are really ill.
When you leave the house, wear a mask. Masks keep asymptomatic people from spreading the virus.
Be vigilant about touch: Don’s touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Sanitize your hands often.
Be careful with the information: “People need to be careful. Even articles that quote a CDC study can interpret data out of context. Lab conditions don’t always replicate in real life,” Altamimi said. “This is a novel, meaning new, virus to us, and we are learning as we go.”
There are a lot of studies online that are meant to help other medical professionals. They are in the beginning stages of studying the disease and trying to help patients as they do. “Every day we’re getting new information regarding the virus,” she said.