When and how to hand wash?

Dr. Anil Lahoti Apr 20, 2019 738 0

Hand washing is till date the best approach to avoid cold and other infectious and respiratory diseases which may get transmitted by your hand to your mouth or get from your hand to nose or eyes. Soap work as a vehicle to trap the virus, bacteria and germ which get loose by rubbing your hands together under running water. Finally, these germs are rinsed away by the water.

Every day, you contact other people, touch infectious surface, even pat your pet, these are different causes of getting germs on your hands which can pass to your mouth or nose. Yes, when you touch your eyes and mouth, you can contaminate your body and catch different diseases. Hence you should wash your hands as soon you get home and before you eat something.

The Right Way to Wash your Hands

Hand washing to avoid catching any kind of infection involves use of soap and water, or a hand sanitizer or cleanser which you can use without water. You don’t have any best water temperature to wash your hand. If your hands are very dirty and greasy, then you should use lukewarm water to a hot water to trap dirt and grease in the soap, promoting a more thorough and intense cleaning.

Using the right soap also matters. It is important for the soap to lather and evenly spread on the hands easily to trap the germs.

When Should You Wash Your Hands?

You should wash your hands under these situations:

Before preparing the food
Before consuming the food
Before and after taking care of a person who is sick.
Before and after treating a wound
After using toilet.
After changing diapers of cleaning your child when he has used the toilet.
If you sneeze, cough or have runny nose.
After touching animal or your pet or their waste.
After giving pet their treats
After touching garbage.

Steps to Wash your Hands Correctly

Washing your hands cleanly is simple and it is one of the best ways to avoid spread of germs. Cleaning your hands in the right way will help you stop spread of germs from one person to another or to your mouth, eyes and nose.

Follow these 5 steps well to get your hands clean

Wet your hands with running water, whether hot or cold and turn off the tap.
Now apply soap and lather your hands by rubbing one hand with another. Lather your hand back, your nails as well as between your fingers.
Scrubs your hands for around 20 seconds. And, no you don’t have to count till 20.
Rinse your hands well with running tidy water.
Lastly, dry your hands with the help of a clean towel or air dry.

What should be done if you do not have clean water or soap to wash your hands?

Washing hands with soap and water is the perfect way to get rid of all bacteria and virus off your hands. However, in absence of these, you can go for an alcohol based hand sanitizer which has 60% of alcohol. You should ask the storekeeper to give you at least 60% alcohol content hand sanitizer. Some facts related to hand sanitizers are mentioned below:

Sanitizers can effectively lower the germ count on hands only in certain specific situations.
Sanitizers do not wipe out all kinds of germs
Hand sanitizers may not work effectively on greasy and mud dirty hands.
Hand sanitizers may not be able to remove toxic chemicals from your hands like fertilizers or pesticides.
Do not allow your kids to play with hand sanitizers as swallowing it may cause alcohol poisoning.

The right way to use hand sanitizers