The Centers for Disease Control states that hands are the most common mode of transmission of disease causing agents. Even so, only 68% of people wash their hands after using the toliet. School kids are sick less often if they wash their hands.
Proper hand washing helps stop the spread of norovirus, E.coli, H5N1 avian flu, Acinetobacter baumannii and other infectious diseases such as the common cold and the seasonal flu.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 2 minutes
Here's How:
- Wet hands.
- Apply soap. This can be a bar of soap, powdered soap or liquid soap.
- Rub hands together for 20 seconds or more. This is the step where many people fail the hand washing test. Rub hands in a circulate fashion. Rub fingers, thumbs, around the nail bed, the backs of the hands, between the fingers and the palm of the hand.
- Rinse well with clean running water.
- Dry on towel. (Use disposable paper towels or a hand blow dryer outside of your home or in a healthcare setting.)
- If you are outside of your home, you can use the paper towel to turn off the faucet. If only air hand dryers are used, use a tissue from your pocket. Luckily some faucets automatically turn on and off or can be operated by a foot pedal.
- For alcohol-based hand cleansers, dispense the product on hands (read label on product for proper amount), and rub hands together working the product around hands, fingers and fingernails until the product dries.
Tips:
- Keep fingernails short (less than a quarter of an inch long). Use a nail brush to scrub underneath and around fingernails. Especially in the healthcare setting, try to do without wearing artificial fingernails.
- Carry a small bottle of alcohol-based hand cleanser with you! If you're traveling by plane, carry a bottle that contains less than 3 ounces, 100 ml, to comply with new TSA airline security regulations.
- Visit the CDC Clean Hands Campaign website. And see this PDF file on hand hygiene from the World Health Organization for people who manage avian influenza samples.
- Check out the CDC presentation on hand hygiene for people working in a healthcare setting. They advocate alcohol-based hand cleansers for various reasons you can read here.
- For a fun school experiment, see this great easy-to-follow CDC PDF document on hand washing ready to print out and use.
What You Need:
- Regular Soap
- Clean Water
- Paper Towel or Regular Towel
- Or, alcohol-based hand cleanser (Ethyl alcohol is better than isopropyl alcohol)