Handwashing
Hand washing with soap for 20 seconds is one of the single most important practices to protect yourself, your family, and your community - Matthew Freeman
image by: UNICEF
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Why you should recommit to hand-washing to help prevent COVID
When you wash your hands, the soap lifts the dirt, oil, and other particles—like viruses—off the surface of the hand, says Ajay Sethi, an associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Rubbing your hands together as you wash also pulls unwanted particles free from the skin.
“As you apply and move soap around your wet hands, it lathers as soap molecules are destroying and deactivating the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other germs,” Sethi says. Water then carries these particles off your hands and down the drain, leaving your mitts clean and virus-free.
This only happens, however, when you wash your hands properly. Studies in recent years,…
Resources
The Pandemic Habit We Should Not Break
As we get back into the world and the germs that inhabit it, we shouldn’t drop the hand-washing habits so many us adopted in the Covid era.
Wash your damn hands
It’s one of the best ways to prevent Covid-19 — and you’re probably doing it wrong.
Millions of people can’t wash their hands for 20 seconds—for lack of water
For all the uncertainty that characterizes the global Covid-19 pandemic, the most common directions for protecting ourselves from catching and spreading it have remained the same from the beginning: Avoid unnecessary contact with others, and wash your hands often with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds. But often, following these simple directives is simply not an option for the 780 million people around the world who don’t have access to an “improved water source.”
The Do’s and Don’ts of Handwashing
It’s one of the best ways to avoid infection from the new coronavirus, but most people aren’t very good at it. Here’s expert guidance on how to do it right.
Coronavirus and handwashing: research shows proper hand drying is also vital
To wash your hands effectively, it needs to be done with clean water and soap. Hands should be rubbed together for at least 20 seconds, followed by rinsing. The use of soap is particularly important for handwashing to be effective as research has shown that washing with soap significantly reduces the presence of microbes (viruses and bacteria) on hands. But one often overlooked part of handwashing is hand drying – which is also integral to effective hand hygiene.
COVID: why you still need to wash your hands
Hygiene is not theatre, it’s one component of infectious disease prevention and control, and a component people have control over. And, despite the takeover by COVID in all our communications, other infectious diseases still circulate and cause infection.
Did early focus on hand washing and not masks aid spread of Covid-19?
From the moment coronavirus reached UK shores, public health advice stressed the importance of washing hands and deep-cleaning surfaces to reduce the risk of becoming infected. The advice was informed by mountains of research into the transmission of other respiratory viruses: it was the best scientists could do with such a new pathogen. But as the pandemic spread and data rolled in, some scientists began to question whether the focus on hand hygiene was as crucial as it seemed
Hand-Washing Can Protect You From Coronavirus. But You Need To Do It Right
The guidelines are everywhere: You should be washing your hands regularly to help stop the spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19. But does the temperature of the water matter? What's the right way to dry your hands? Why is washing your hands better than using hand sanitizer?
How soap absolutely annihilates the coronavirus
You’re not just washing viruses down the drain. Soap destroys the coronavirus, a chemistry professor explains.
In a pandemic, hospital staffers need to get better at hand-washing
While U.S. hospitals are required to have programs in place to improve hand hygiene, there’s no actual hand hygiene goal. As one expert acknowledged, “In theory, a hospital could report a hand hygiene performance rate of 20%, improve it by 1% a year, and maintain compliance.”
Q&A: Does handwashing stem the transmission of Covid-19?
In the early days of the pandemic, public health experts emphasised handwashing as a way to prevent infection and the government launched a “Hands, Face, Space” campaign to encourage people to wash their hands, wear masks and keep 2 metres apart. Subsequent research has shown the biggest risk of Covid-19 transmission is through particles in the air.
Why COVID-19 can’t beat a good hand-washing
And pretty much any other contagious disease.
Why you should recommit to hand-washing to help prevent COVID
With cases on the rise once again, revisiting hand washing and other practices is a necessity.
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