Is skin preparation necessary before insulin injection?

We hate to advocate unhygienic practices but we also hate for you to get all agitated and upset if you don't have any alcohol or an alcohol swab along when you need to take a shot. For what it's worth, June never cleans the injection site with alcohol. One doctor told us there was a British study in which they gave 5,000 injections using alcohol and 5,000 without. There were only five infections in the whole lot and all those were in cases where alcohol had been used! (The doctor laughed and said maybe the alcohol irritated the bacteria and stirred them into action.)

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