How Often Do You Wash Your Hands?

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This might sound very basic, but how often do you wash your hands?

In every hospital setting, excellent hand hygiene is very vital, because it reduces the spread of resistant bacteria.

Handwashing is an integral component of modern healthcare practice.

This aspect can’t be overlooked -That is how important handwashing is, people!

When you do not wash your hands, you increase the likelihood of spreading many diseases and infections.

It is important to understand, that as simple as this might appear to be, your daily habits could either promote your health or put your health at risk.

What is handwashing?

Proper handwashing is done with soap and clean running water.

It should be done routinely, and not ignored for any reason.

The more often you wash your hands, the better for you because you would minimize the number of germs that get onto your hands.

How do germs make their way onto your hands and cause sickness?

Germs can make their way onto your hands when you come in contact with them from your feces, someone else’s, or that of animals.

Feces from any of these sources have germs like Norovirus, Salmonella, and Escherichia coli.

These culprits have the potential to cause diarrhea and spread some respiratory infections like a hand-foot-mouth disease.

How bad is the situation?

A few days ago, while I was doing research for this article, I came upon some data from the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and I was stunned by what I learned!

Did you know that 1.4 million children under the age of five die as a result of pneumonia and diarrhea?

This is not restricted to specific countries, it happens worldwide!

This exceeds the number of deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined!

Did you also know that simple handwashing that is done with soap could reduce this number significantly?

There is so much that the provision of soap and good running water can do for people in vulnerable communities across the world.

When you make a habit of washing your hands properly, and whenever it should be done, you could be embracing a more potent alternative to fighting against pneumonia and diarrhea.

What I am saying here is, that when it comes to preventing pneumonia and diarrhea, proper washing of hands could be as effective as (or better than) any clean water, medication, or vaccine. Give it a thought!

In addition, it is more cost-effective, and helps curb unnecessary expenditures on the part of individuals and economies as well, because public health hazards along these lines would not be funny at all, people!

How to do proper hand washing

Requirements

• Soap
• Clean running water

Procedure

Here are 5 easy steps for proper handwashing that will promote good health for you:

• Be sure to wet your hands under water.
• Lather up your hands with your soap of choice

• Thoroughly rub against all surfaces of the hands for about 20–30 seconds.
• Rinse your hands very well under running water while ensuring that you have completely washed off the soap.
• Dry your hands well to prevent moisture from transmitting any remaining bacteria.

What kind of soap do I prefer?

Personally, be it within my own space or a public setting, I prefer using liquid soap for the following reasons:

• I get to use fresh soap each time I wash my hands.
• As opposed to liquid soap, tablet soaps tend to lather less with continuous use.

Consider washing your hands as often as possible, most especially in the following instances:

• After using the bathroom/toilet.
• Every time you come into your house from outside.
• After handshakes with people.
• Before cooking and serving food.
• After you used your hands in covering your mouth or nose during a cough or sneeze respectively.
• Before and after eating.
• This might sound funny to some people, but we do not want to have pepper, or other things entering places; therefore, wash your hands before and after having sex.
• After handling trash.

Good hand hygiene is indisputably necessary for the promotion of good health.

Make it a habit to do it routinely, because it would benefit you in many ways than one.

This is the time to begin teaching your children the importance of washing their hands.

Be the example they would emulate by having them join you in handwashing.

Handwashing costs you nothing, but it could cost you everything if, you ignore doing it!

Keep washing your hands, for therein lies the power!