2nd-grade hand hygiene experiment reduces school absenteeism by 71%.

2nd-grade hand hygiene experiment reduces school absenteeism by 71%.The CDC has described hand-washing as a “do-it-yourself” vaccine. Researchers here showed how it can prevent absenteeism due to illness among elementary school students. According to findings presented at IDWeek, school absences plummeted 71% among second graders at a Virginia elementary school after researchers taught the students how to properly wash their hands, then culture them to detect microbial growth.