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Disposable gloves cannot really prevent the new coronavirus. In fact, they can even increase the risk of infection for a variety of reasons.

In supermarkets, weekly markets and daily life: People are increasingly wearing not only masks but also disposable gloves to protect themselves from the highly contagious coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In many pharmacies around the world, they have been sold out for weeks.

The use of disposable gloves seems to be an obvious way to help avoid infection. After all, coronavirus infection can occur not only through droplet infection (that is, when someone coughs or sneezes near you), but also through smear infection. In the latter case, if you touch objects with pathogens, they will fall on your hands. If you then touch your face, eyes, nose or mouth with your hands, the virus will enter your body and make you sick.

Although doctors’ operating rooms and nurses wear disposable gloves, they can only protect hands from gross contamination, such as blood or other body fluids. They can only prevent contamination by bacteria and viruses in a short period of time.

This is because the material of disposable gloves is actually porous, and the longer it is worn, the easier it is for pathogens to penetrate the so-called protective shield. This is one of the reasons why medical staff should carefully clean and disinfect their hands after using disposable gloves. Disposable gloves clearly cannot replace these hygiene rules.

Disposable gloves made of vinyl, latex or nitrile may give a sense of sterility, but this sense of security is very deceptive. Many people are more careful not to touch their faces when shopping with disposable gloves-but this often happens occasionally.

Warning: Even if you wear disposable gloves to reach for your mobile phone or trouser pocket, you can still spread the pathogen to a large area without paying attention. Whether the virus enters the human body from bare hands or through the face from disposable gloves has nothing to do with the virus.

'Large-scale hygiene chaos'

For these reasons, doctors not only urgently warn of this deceptive sense of security, but also point out that disposable gloves can even increase the risk of infection. This is because the skin starts to sweat quickly under disposable gloves. And such a warm and humid climate is an ideal living environment for all kinds of bacteria and viruses.

"Don't wear medical gloves in public! This is a large-scale sanitation mess." This is how Dr. Marc Hanefeld expressed fiercely on Twitter and Facebook. “Under the gloves, bacteria multiply happily in a warm and humid space. After they are taken off, there is no disinfection, and there is a sewer on the hands. Congratulations!” said Hanefeld, a doctor from Bremervörde in northern Germany.

Pulmonologist and physician Dr. Jens Mathews also holds a similar view. In an interview with German public broadcaster SWR3, he described disposable gloves as a "germ spreader" of the coronavirus. He said that not only did they provide no protection, they could even backfire. According to Matthews, in a short period of time, disposable gloves can accumulate more bacteria on the surface than freshly washed hands.

Scientist Dr. Jacquelyn Gill also shared a very vivid description on social media. He explained how to use disposable gloves correctly and the risks of incorrect use.

For many years, Professor Ojan Assadian, chairman of the Austrian Society of Hospital Hygiene (ÖGKH), has also warned against using disposable gloves by mistake.

“I don’t even recommend that people without medical training wear disposable gloves in their daily lives. Taking off disposable gloves requires a certain amount of professional knowledge and practice, so that any microorganisms adhering to the gloves will remain on the gloves and gloves. The wearer does not apply them to their hands, wrists or sleeves when they take them off," the hygienist and infectious disease expert explained in an interview with the professional magazine pflegen-online.de.

Therefore, people who want to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus infection should follow the now familiar protective and hygiene measures and avoid the use of disposable gloves. So: wash your hands thoroughly with soap, keep your distance, stay at home...

Anyone who still wants to use disposable gloves should dispose of them properly after the fact, instead of—unfortunately as often observed at the moment—accidentally throw them away.

It is negligent and anti-social to throw away used disposable gloves or deliberately leave them in the shopping cart. The Robert Koch Institute, the German Federal Agency for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends that they should be disposed of in the same way as masks: put them in airtight bags in non-recyclable trash cans.

As Asia is likely to become the epicenter of the pandemic again, as the number of infections in many countries in the region continues to rise, Deutsche Welle's coronavirus newsletter is here to provide the answers you are looking for. (06.04.2020)  

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