Hands Up for Health!
Good
old-fashioned soap and water received a boost last month from the Centre for
Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. It describes hand washing as being like a
“DIY Vaccine”.
Involving only five simple steps – Wet,
Lather, Scrub, Rinse and Dry this most basic of activities can help reduce the
spread of not only diarrhea-type diseases but also respiratory illness such as ‘flu,
helping you and everyone around you to stay healthy. Getting into the habit of
regular effective handwashing is one of the best ways to keep your hands free
of germs so that you reduce your own likelihood of getting sick and also the
risk of you spreading germs and disease around to other people.
A detailed study
revealed that using bar soap and clean running water was the most effective way
to clean hands. There was no benefit seen from using antibacterial products or
even hot water. There is some suggestion that hot water might actually be
unhelpful as it is more likely to cause skin irritation.
When Should I wash my Hands?
The CDC report lists
ten indicators for thorough handwashing:
1. Before, during and
after preparing food
2. Before eating food
3. Before and after
caring for someone who is sick
4. Before and after
treating a cut or wound
5. After using the toilet
6. After changing
nappies or cleaning a child’s bottom
7. After blowing your
nose, coughing or sneezing
8. After touching
animals, animal feed or animal waste
9. After handling pet
food or pet treats
10. After handling
rubbish
How?
Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap
and apply bar soap.
Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the
backs of your hands, between your fingers and under the nails.
Scrub your hands for 20 seconds. This does not mean that you need to use a brush.
It means the rubbing of your fingers and hands in a methodical way ensuring
that all surfaces are rubbed with soap and water. (I have added a link to a
very good New Zealand website on hand hygiene at the end of this article).
Humming “Happy
Birthday “twice is a good guide to time.
Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
Dry thoroughly using a clean towel or air dry.
How can I clean my hands if I
don’t have access to bar soap and clean running water?
Washing with soap and water is the best way to clean your
hands, but if they are not available an alcohol-based sanitizer is an option.
A 60% alcohol-based
hand sanitizer can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some
situations but they do not kill all germs and if hands are visibly dirty or
greasy their effectiveness is limited. To get the best out of hand sanitisers,
apply the product to the palm of one hand and then rub your hands together,
making sure the whole surface of hands and fingers are coated until your hands
are dry.
While hand sanitisers
are very convenient it has been shown that those alcohol based products with an
alcohol concentration of 60% or over are more effective than non alcohol based
or lower concentration products.
Soap and water are better
at reducing or inactivating more germs than sanitisers, including serious types
such as Clostridium Difficile, Cryptosporidium and norovirus.
Drying properly
helps prevent sore hands
Having washed your hands it is important to dry them thoroughly to
prevent irritation and cracking or “hacks”. Many people complain of dryness and
soreness on the backs of their hands which can be very itchy and unsightly.
Surprisingly enough this is often not a result of allergy or eczema but simply
a failure to dry the backs of the hands properly after washing.
We often feel that the washing is the important part and that we can
rush the drying stage but it is important
to use a dry towel, not a manky wet one which hardly dries at all and may
indeed be full of germs. Do not focus solely on the palms and fingers but
extend your drying to the backs of your hands and all the areas left wet after
washing so that they are not left damp and vulnerable to the cold which can
cause inflammation.
When is soap not a soap?
While many of us call
bottled hand and bodywash products “liquid soaps”, they are in fact “syndets”
which is the user-friendly term coined by the chemical industry for synthetic
detergents, not unlike washing-up liquid.
The Centre for Disease
Control specifies the use of soap for handwashing and illustrates its
instructions with bar soaps. Soap is recognized by the CDC as being the most
effective agent for hand cleansing.
Before the
introduction of these liquid wash products dermatitis was much more rarely seen
than it is now. The sale of moisturisers has rocketed since syndets were
introduced.
Some solid cleansers which look like bar soaps also contain syndets so
be aware.
Helpful websites: This is a link to a very well laid-out website
with good detailed diagrams showing the best way to wash your hands http://www.handhygiene.org.nz You can of
course also view Marble Hill’s website at www.marblehillonline.co.uk