YT2095 Posted November 27, 2003 Posted November 27, 2003 why does Alcohol kill germs? what mechanism is in play? and why in the UK have they stopped using the alcohol swabs before they give you an injection?
wolfson Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 Ethyl alcohol kills germs by denaturing their protein, which means that germs cannot "mutate" or suddenly become resistant to ethyl alcohol and not be killed by it. Ethyl alcohol has been used to kill germs for centuries now, and no organisms are known to be resistant to it. For the latter i dont know. 70% alcohol and 2% iodine (tincture), is the nest germ killer the use now in surgery.
wolfson Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 By denaturing i mean changing the shape of the protein so that it becomes "usless" as a germ.
YT2095 Posted November 28, 2003 Author Posted November 28, 2003 Cool, thnx the iodine tincture is still used for surgery as a pre-swab. but for needles now, the practice of alc swabing has been stopped for some reason. anyone else know why?
daisy Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 YT...as far as I know they still use alcohol swabs...certainly when they take blood samples, so I can't imagine it would be any different regarding injections. What do you reckon they use as an alternative? Because they'd have to be using an alternative sterilising agent.
YT2095 Posted November 28, 2003 Author Posted November 28, 2003 Non at all, and that`s both at Sandwell hospital West-Midlands and also at Aldridge Fertility Clinic, they use nothing anymore, before taking blood or for injections. maybe it`s a local thing?
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