Viruses can zoom through workplaces in hours

But hand-sanitizing wipes reduce spread, experiment shows

WASHINGTON — A virus on an office door handle can spread to more than half the people working there within a few hours, say researchers at the University of Arizona in Tucson. But when people use hand sanitizers and disinfect their work stations, transmission drops off sharply, they reported September 8 at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.