WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Health Alert: Fingernail germs

Health Alert: Fingernail germs

(National-NBC) Dec. 17, 2004 - Long and colorful, fake and "French," or au natural, your fingernails are noticeable. Many women spend between $15 and $30 a week to get their nails manicured.

They may look pretty on the surface, but what could be hiding underneath is what you need to be worried about, "If you can see your nails over the tip of your finger, then your nails are too long."

Margaret Martin is the director of infection services at Presbyterian Hospital. When it comes to long fingernails, she cuts to the quick, "They really are not clean,, and they carry germs."

Martin is anti-acrylics, "You lose the ability to feel things underneath your nail," and pro-short, clean nails.

No patient-care provider at Presbyterian is allowed to have long nails after the deaths of several babies in the intensive care unit of Oklahoma City's Children's hospital.

According to "Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology," a medical journal quoted in a March, 2000, edition of the "New York Times," "Genetic and environmental evidence supported the link between the deaths of the babies and the long fingernails."

Martin calls it, "A very tragic situation."

So, for the everyday woman or man, Martin encourages scrubbing, not just washing under the nails. Doctors recommend you wash your hands with alcohol-based anti-bacterial soap.

posted 10:27am by Chris Rees