why does Alcohol kill germs? what mechanism is in play?

 

and why in the UK have they stopped using the alcohol swabs before they give you an injection?

Ethyl alcohol kills germs by denaturing their protein, which means that germs cannot "mutate" or suddenly become resistant to ethyl alcohol and not be killed by it. Ethyl alcohol has been used to kill germs for centuries now, and no organisms are known to be resistant to it. For the latter i dont know. 70% alcohol and 2% iodine (tincture), is the nest germ killer the use now in surgery.

By denaturing i mean changing the shape of the protein so that it becomes "usless" as a germ.

Cool, thnx

 

the iodine tincture is still used for surgery as a pre-swab.

but for needles now, the practice of alc swabing has been stopped for some reason. anyone else know why?

YT...as far as I know they still use alcohol swabs...certainly when they take blood samples, so I can't imagine it would be any different regarding injections. What do you reckon they use as an alternative? Because they'd have to be using an alternative sterilising agent.

Non at all, and that`s both at Sandwell hospital West-Midlands and also at Aldridge Fertility Clinic, they use nothing anymore, before taking blood or for injections. maybe it`s a local thing?