Best Way to Prevent Flu Is to Wash Hands

Q:  My daughter was recently diagnosed with the flu. Why were my husband and I put on medication? Also, I saw an advertisement for "Kleenex anti-viral tissues" which, as they say, "kill 99.9% of cold and flu viruses." Are these tissues worth the extra cost?

A:  When you say "the flu," I'm sure you're referring to influenza, the virus that can cause fever, aches, cold symptoms and pneumonia. (Sometimes people confuse the term "stomach flu" with influenza; the stomach flu is caused by a different set of viruses.)

The first part of your question relates to medications to treat the flu once you have been exposed.

These anti-viral medications are good at preventing outbreaks in nursing homes and preventing infection in close household contacts. In these cases, the patient with confirmed influenza is treated at the same time.

The second part of your question relates to special tissues that are embedded with an agent that kills viruses, or a virucide.

This agent kills influenza, cold viruses and RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus and can sometimes be a dangerous virus in young children. The tissue's claim is probably correct: The virucide kills nearly all cold and flu viruses, but these viruses have to be in contact with the tissue for some time, up to 15 minutes.

I asked Dr. Randy Lipchik, a pulmonary specialist and a Professor of Medicine at the Medical College, whether he would recommend these tissues to his patients with influenza or for prevention of infection.

The problem he identified is that the person in need of a tissue already has an infection. Whether the tissues can prevent spread of the infection is not clear.

Commonly, healthy people acquire a cold by hand-to-hand contact, where, before hand-to-hand contact, the infected person has transferred the virus from his nose to his hands and, after hand-to-hand contact, the healthy person touches his nose or eyes to infect himself. You can see that a virucidal agent would be more effective if applied directly to the hands.

It's possible that, with frequent use of these specially treated tissues, some of the virucidal agent is indeed deposited on the hands. Or, if it's a child who's infected, and an adult is cleaning up her tissues, it may help if the child is using these tissues.

But the best thing you can do to prevent the flu or its spread is to wash your hands frequently. And anyone who is at risk for complications of the flu, such as older people or people with diabetes or asthma, should get vaccinated each fall.

Julie L. Mitchell, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She practices internal medicine at the Froedtert & Medical College General Internal Medicine Clinic - East. Her column appears in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.