Germ Defence rolled out through GP practices across England to help reduce household COVID-19 infections

Press release issued: 18 March 2021

Even though COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, it is still important to try to reduce the spread of infection in the home. During restrictions, infections are most likely to be transmitted in households. Research has shown people who follow the advice from the Germ Defence website are less likely to catch flu or other viruses and less likely to pass it on to members of their household.

Germ Defence [freely available from www.germdefence.org/] is the only web-based advice in the world that has been scientifically proven to work against respiratory infections. In a Lancet study of over 20,000 people, using Germ Defence reduced the spread of swine flu and seasonal flu in the home.

Germ Defence has been updated for COVID-19 by a team of health researchers at Bristol, Southampton and Bath universities. The website provides simple, tailored advice appropriate to people's different circumstances, to help people to use easy behaviour change techniques to reduce virus spread at home.

Researchers from the Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC), the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West),and NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol are examining if Germ Defence is effective at reducing infections during the pandemic when rolled out through GP practices.

Further information

Read the Centre for Academic Primary Care press release