Do you wash your underwear separately..

[Surfergal]

and sanitize it with bleach to avoid E.coli contamination to the rest of your laundry? update: see below for more info- glad to learn I am not the only one who had never heard of this.

[Surfergal]

http://www.familycircle.com/issue/issue1.jsp

Protect your laundry
Your clothes might smell fresh, but if they’ve been washed with underwear, they may not be as clean as you think. “Germs are hardy and can survive even the hot water in a washing machine,” says Philip M. Tierno Jr., Ph.D., director of clinical microbiology at New York University Medical Center. Studies have found evidence of E. coli and other bacteria in washing machines. Wash underwear separately and with some bleach.
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http://www.usaweekend.com/00_issues/000312/000312prevention.html

In a new survey of 121 households, Audits International, an independent food- research safety firm, reports that nearly 70% of home cooks broke at least one major safety rule when preparing foods....3. Sanitize those linens. Disease-causing germs such as E. coli and the hepatitis A virus can survive on cloth even after you've laundered it. Wash kitchen linens, towels and underwear separately; these items are most likely to harbor germs. And use hot water and chlorine bleach or a sanitizing detergent.

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http://www.aaaai.org/aadmc/inthenews/wypr/2000archive/how_clean_is_your_laundry.html

How clean is your laundry?

Summary
Most people feel confident that the clothes just washed in their washing machines are free of infectious elements as well as clean. However, in an article in the New York Times, Dr. Charles Gerba, a water quality expert in the University of Arizona, reported that the water at the end of clothes washing contained coliform bacteria or fecal matter in 20-25%.of cases examined The reasons postulated by Dr. Gerba were insufficiently hot water and lack of bleach. He recommended washing underwear separately and in the last wash using hot water and adequate bleach for that wash. After removing these clothes, one should run an empty wash cycle with hot water and bleach to "clean out" the machine.

Editor's Comments
These findings may come as a surprise to both you and your patients. The author did not make clear how often this level of contamination actually results in infection in the users of the contents being washed in these machines. However, it appears reasonable to consider the precautions mentioned, particularly if there are household members with atopic dermatitis who may be particularly susceptible to secondary infections of the skin