Over the last few weeks my wife has purchased some bottles of hand cleaner and hygeinic wipes and i was shocked how cheap these things are infact you can get two bottles for the price of a packet of fags so i would think that most intelligent people would have bought them by now.keeping your hands clean is half the battle to stop the spread.(so the doctors say) but the small cost of these precausions its worth sticking a few bottles through your house .

hand cleaning and stuff won't help, flu is a virus, not a bacteria.

in my opinion, everyone is too clean anyway, the cleaner you and your surroundings are, the less disease you encounter. the less disease you encounter, the weaker your immune system and the greater the risk of infection.

Walk into a hospital ward and the handcleaner is free of charge but most people don't bother. Do you think someone who's on minimum wage is going to choose handcleaner over a packet of cigs.

Anyway, I'd heard that most cases of swine flu have turned out to be common cold or normal flu as people have just panicked over the media's obsession with the story, exagerated their symptoms and then doctors, no doubt worried about a No win no fee claims lawyer, have covered their backs.

Almighty God, Salford
This is a precausion to stop spreading a desease on door handles etc,and should be taken seriously,and its not about upsetting your immune system its a simple way of stopping people spreading a desease.simple and easy to do.Kids were taught years ago to use a hankerchief to catch germs etc ,but now you see people coughing and sneezing in peoples faces..

Blimey how much did this cost the Trust to do this stunt.

For goodness sake the media have nothing better to do but scaremongering its flu we have it every year around Christmas time one strain or another please keep it in context.

There`s some strange comments here in response to NHS workers simply handing out tissues to prevent the spread of flu.

Almighty God reckons it`ll weaken the immune system while Mad Welsh Scotsman manages to randomly attack people on minimum wage and no win no fee claims.

could someone stop the checkout operators at asda hyde from licking their fingers when they dole out the carrier bags, I have spoken to the supervisors and it still carries on, the trolleys have warnings on about washing your hands to prevent swine flu but they can put saliva on my food shopping, one week I got it on my hand. yuk!

It makes you wonder how we managed in the good old days without toilet tissue,kitchen roll and paper hankies.In ours an old sheet got ripped up for a cold.I like the liquid for hand washing its so much easier than soap and kids are more willing to use it .

Almighty God: Influenza is a virus, however, that does not mean it cannot be killed by hand washing. It can. As for your immune system, it works by recognising threats and responding but it needs to have come in contact with an agent to recognise it properly, which is what vaccinations do. It doesn't matter how strong your immune system is, if it hasn't seen this virus before, it can't effectively defend against it. Each year, a new seasonal flu vaccine has to be developed because the virus is slightly different each year, swine flu is different aagian, which brings me on to Life is Loud: this is different than the Seasonal Flu we have every year, it infecting and in some cases killing a whole different group of patients seasonal flu does. We will still have Seasonal Flu later on this year with a likely resurgence of Swine Flu at the same time.

"It makes you wonder how we managed in the good old days without toilet tissue,kitchen roll and paper hankies"

Well, they died a lot younger for one thing, something for almighty to consider as well

could someone stop the checkout operators at asda hyde from licking their fingers when they dole out the carrier bags, I have spoken to the supervisors and it still carries on, the trolleys have warnings on about washing your hands to prevent swine flu but they can put saliva on my food shopping, one week I got it on my hand. yuk!
manchester girl,

You dare still use plastic carrier bags. So you can destroy the planet slowly, but a checkout opperator can't bump you off. selfish attitude Manchester girl.
To be serious though I had one sneeze directly into her palm twice,and then weigh my veg. I just walked out, after pointing that out to her. She looked at me as though I was daft. But the customer after me just let her process her stuff...

When a place like mexico closses down for the safety of its people you have to take these warnings serious.We in britain have a way of just sitting back and sticking our heads in the sand.This flu is serious and people are dying not just the old the young are also dying.Take it serious its happening and the only way to slow it down is to take action.Ive seen the mobile NHS labs parked around the back of bingo halls.They dont do that for nothing?

Zimmerman - this flu is no more deadly than seasonal flu at the momment so please stop believing all the media hype. The number of people that have died of swine flu isn't even near the number that die from seasonal flu each year and just like with seasonal flu some people with no underlying medical conditions have died.

Get your facts right before fuelling the unnecessary panic. When 30,000 people have died and our hospitals are full of people dying with swine flu, then you can panic.

citycentre.I was asking a question.What did we do with a snotty nose in the good old days,before tissues?I can answer the question myself having had time to think.Blow it on a hankie and push it up your sleeve.Or,as still seen today-Press one nostril at a time and blow the contents onto the floor.Or alternatively,another way that is still very common-Sniff it up then spit it on the floor.Tissue may have improved hygiene and health for the majority,but a minority still like to do it the old way.Pavements must have been very slippy in the good old days.Sorry if anyones eating.

Manc 101
I was responding to Zimmermans suggestion that Hand wipes are cheap, I said people go into hospital and don't bother washing their hands when it's free. I wasn't attacking the minimum wage people, I was mearly stating that people with not a lot of spare money will find other things to spend it on. And you have to admit that Doctors will not leave themselves vunerable when there is some vulture waiting for the opportunity to fleece him. The only people I'm having a dig at is the No win no fee lawyers

Of Denton, Tameside
What the "WHO" Are saying is when the flu season starts we could be in trouble,You have to tale care not to spread desease and use handwash.and not just sit back and think its going to go away..