It turns out that there is even a post on the effectiveness of washing hands with soap versus hand sanitizers that I found by Googling. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/washing-hands-soap-hand-sanitizer/story?id=8941662#.UFJG4duF8Rk. Following are some excerpts:
"The first thing we noticed is that alcohol-based hand sanitizer clearly works the best.
In fact, the CDC says you should use a hand sanitizer containing at least 60 percent alcohol.
As for soap, the antibacterial soap worked only slightly better than the regular soap. The Food and Drug Administration recommends using only regular soap because of worries that germs will develop resistance, and people will develop laziness from high-tech soap.
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The E. coli we used for our experiment was a harmless strain, not the deadly E. coli 0-157 bacteria. Swine flu is a virus, but the advice is the same: Alcohol kills viruses and soap -- any soap -- used well, washes them off.
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Experts say washing with soap and water is first choice, especially if you have visible dirt on your hands. Sanitizer can't cut through that grime. Hand sanitizer is great for when you can't get to soap and water, and it's actually more effective at eliminating germs because it kills them rather than just removing them."
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