"Out damned spot! Out, I say!"
When Lady Macbeth appears in Act V of Macbeth, she's acting very peculiar, eliciting interesting commentary by her doctor and a gentlewoman.
"What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands," the doctor says.
"Lady Macbeth's actions were perfectly appropriate then as now in how best to deal with infectious disease," explains Dr. Sarah Forgie in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. "While Shakespeare's character was trying to get rid of blood rather than disease, he obviously knew that washing was the best way to control infection."
Forgie, an expert in infectious diseases, is a strong advocate of washing as a preventative measure in controlling disease. She lectures on ways to minimize infections, especially in bacteria hotspots like hospitals, and has words of advice about managing SARS.
"Good hand hygiene is essential," she says. "It's the best way to ensure bacteria or viruses don't have a chance to spread through repeated contact. This is especially appropriate considering the concern over SARS around the world."
The good news is that Lady Macbeth was wrong about one thing when she worried: "What? Will these hands ne'er be clean?"
"We can effectively clean our hands by washing them," notes Forgie."
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