Importance of washing hands

could refer to more recent examples of genuinely united human endeavour and achievement of the highest order from more modern-day heroes.

Mind you, I have to express newfound respect for Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, who highlighted the fact that nothing in life (provided for by governments who spend our hard-earned taxes) is free.

The SNP might rejoice by claiming she is simply endorsing coalition government policies, but the truth is that some very hard decisions continue to be made as our country digs itself out of the global recession. SIR, – Your excellent piece (October 3) about Aberdeen doctor Alexander Gordon's fight, 200 years ago, to establish fouled hands as a key source of infections associated with very high mortality should be compulsory reading for all.

Killing post-partum women by default as a result of inputting pathogenic bacteria while assisting during the birth was proved to be hugely reduced by cleaning the hands first, and the negative attitudes of health staff towards Gordon’s findings were, from today's hindsight, incomprehensible, even if the bacterial world was then quite unknown.

It is instructive, albeit depressingly so, to read that patients are still suffering in our modern hospitals from infections which may very well be associated with dirty hands.

Hand cleansing remains a key element in minimising micro-organism transfer in any environment, including the home, schools, the supermarket, the workshop, the office and so on, and should be automatic.

But should we rush off to the washroom after shaking hands?

Perhaps making it a Curriculum for Excellence topic would help. Joe Darby, St Martins Mill, Cullicudden, Dingwall.