The nose passages has a natural defense; whereas, hands are more vulnerable to disease and certainly can spread disease more than the nose. Below is a link that helps explain from a government agency.

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/handwash.htm

Taking this line of thought further, thinking about cholera for example, might not get us where we need to go and we'd end up needing full body scrubs.  What about instead looking at the social determinants of health, and address these root causes.

Thanks for your answers. In line with pursuing this further, while the nose has natural defenses that help protect it the increases in upper respiratory illnesses (allergies, asthma sinus and ear infections) since the mid 60s suggests something is wrong. The social determinants of health or illness are most likely the increases in central heating and air conditioning that dries the air we breath and handicaps those defenses, together with our wrong headed use of antihistamines and decongestants that directly block the histamine system that is the back-up washing. Addressing the root causes is not likely because we are much more comfortable in our homes and cold pills do dry up the embarrassing rhinopus. We are not likely to give them up. Nsouli reported last November at the AAAAI conference his study with 50 chronic rhinosinusitis patients who got better using a xylitol nasal spray twice a day. It took them two months but it's better than antibiotics.

Considering what has been said above, I would like to add that the nose is not as busy and  exposed as are the hands to contamination..

While hand washing plays a significant role in preventing infection and illness, to control the spread of communicable diseases, apart from hand washing, it is also important to maintain overall hygiene. In many places it has been found that there is poor  maintainance of both water and sanitation in households. Besides, both in rural and urban settings, drainage systems are not maintained properly, so contamination water  often causes diarrhea, cholera and other gastrointestinal infections. There is also low awareness about the relationship between poor hygiene and disease, so it is important to also increase awareness and encourage good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. 

/Dear Alonzo H Jones

i accept your opinion but I think you can prove this consumption by research devide 2 groups one don't washing and another washing nose every day and test after 3 months you can prove your question and I think your research is useful for good health practice

Lots of info on hand washing. But germs don't get into our bodies through our hands, but when we transfer those germs to our mouths and noses. I still think nasal hygiene as important.

Pontiff Kompor,

Some of the research you suggest has been done: ear and sinus infections are less of a problem. My experience is that allergies and asthma benefit also. Our organization was set up to help fund the questions you ask if you are interested.

The disease transmission is not directly into the body through the hands unless there is a cut on the hands.  The hands are important because we touch the rest of the body and other objects.  So we touch something and then touch our eyes or mouth or nose.

Cleaning either only lasts for a very short time so you would have to constantly be cleaning the nose.  Instead we teach people how to sneeze into their arm rather than their hand or the air.  We have people wear gloves and we have people wash their hands before eating or touching equipment which will transmit the disease to others.  We also teach people not to touch their eyes unless they have washed their hands.

Your "sister" organization is Xylitol.org - are there any conflicts of interest to claim?

Of course there are. My wife and I began using xylitol nasally for preventing ear infections. My experience was a 90%+ reduction in ear problems (which you can read about on research gate under nasal xylitol). It also works to prevent allergies and asthma. Its twin modes of action–osmotic, to optimize nasal defenses, and anti adherence became clear only after our initial success. Unfortunately that proprietary interest has made it almost impossible to do anything other than sell a nose wash for the past 16 years. Based on my experience and the results of an unpublished Czech study the EU allows the label claim that regular use can prevent 50% of ear infections. Like xylitol in gum the more exposures the better.

Any ideas for how to improve our clinical awareness?