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It kills "most" of them but some remain and, given the rapididity with which they divide, the number is back to baseline in a short period of time.
Does washing your hands with detergent soap prevent disease? If you are servicing folks whose immune systems are compromised, the literature indicates handwashing decreases the spread of certain types of infections. If you have an intact,healthy, immune system and do not have open wounds as portals of entry, it is not at all clear that such handwashing makes much difference. If handwashing were required for good health, the fact that our species survived the prior eras of hsitory would be nothing short of spectacular since I doubt the cave man era folks washed their hands after pooping. But it would compromise the soap industry if this practice was stopped - and the advertising industry message is blaring at you that you should do it so ....
But there is another aspect to this story. Our immune systems seem to require certain(many?) types of stimuli to remain normally active and functional - and "tolerant" of environmental substances such as, for example, cat dander, peanuts, and so on. It makes sense that the less we are exposed to such assaults, the less well our immune systems will handle such assaults. So avoiding or preventing exposure to the myriad things in the world in which we live may actually trun out to be harmful. Exposure to the gram negative bacteria that are normal inhabitants of our world may be required for our own health, in which case handwashing may not be what it is portrayed to be, a preventive maneuver.
Does washing your hands with detergent soap prevent disease? If you are servicing folks whose immune systems are compromised, the literature indicates handwashing decreases the spread of certain types of infections. If you have an intact,healthy, immune system and do not have open wounds as portals of entry, it is not at all clear that such handwashing makes much difference. If handwashing were required for good health, the fact that our species survived the prior eras of hsitory would be nothing short of spectacular since I doubt the cave man era folks washed their hands after pooping. But it would compromise the soap industry if this practice was stopped - and the advertising industry message is blaring at you that you should do it so ....
But there is another aspect to this story. Our immune systems seem to require certain(many?) types of stimuli to remain normally active and functional - and "tolerant" of environmental substances such as, for example, cat dander, peanuts, and so on. It makes sense that the less we are exposed to such assaults, the less well our immune systems will handle such assaults. So avoiding or preventing exposure to the myriad things in the world in which we live may actually trun out to be harmful. Exposure to the gram negative bacteria that are normal inhabitants of our world may be required for our own health, in which case handwashing may not be what it is portrayed to be, a preventive maneuver.