Most Nigerians only became aware of the need
to always wash their hands when the Ebola virus
disease invaded the country sometime last year.
But if the scary experience taught us anything,
it’s the fact that through hand-washing, we can
prevent even the worst of infections from
afflicting us.
Many people think it’s only children that should
wash their hands because they play with dirty
things. But experts say adults must also wash
their hands all the time.
Hand-washing is one of the most effective
means to reducing the spread of infectious
diseases, germs, bacteria or viruses. It also helps
protect against food-borne illnesses.
Scientists at the Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention say approximately half of all food-
borne illness outbreaks are due to people not
washing their hands properly. They say the first
line of defence against many infectious diseases
is as simple as washing your hands.
Dirty hands kill!
The human hands happen to be the worst
repository of germs. This is because we contact
virtually everything we come across with our
hands. The United Kingdom-based Health
Protection Agency notes that typically, there are
between 10,000 and 10 million bacteria on each
hand, and that damp hands spread 1,000 times
more germs than dry hands.
HPA warns further that the number of germs on
your fingertips doubles after you use the toilet,
and that’s why no one can underrate the
importance of hand-washing!
According to the Managing Director, Unigloves
Medical Limited, Mr. Kevin Onah, washing hands
to prevent infectious diseases dates back to the
19th century. Indeed, medical history notes that
in the 1840s, a Hungarian physician and an early
pioneer of antiseptic procedures, Ignaz
Semmelweis, was able to prove that hand
hygiene could prevent diseases.
As a physician in the Vienna General Hospital’s
First Obstetrical Clinic, Semmelweis examined
why death from puerperal fever was considerably
higher in a ward where doctors and medical
students worked, compared to another ward
where midwifery students were being trained.
Through assiduous research work, Semmelweis
discovered that physicians had been shuffling
germs around simply because they weren’t
washing hands in-between patients or after they
had finished their schedules for the day.
The online portal, wikipedia, notes that
Semmelweis was fondly described as the
“saviour of mothers” because he discovered that
the incidence of puerperal fever (also known as
‘childbed fever’) could be drastically reduced by
the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics.
Onah says puerperal fever was common in
mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal, with
mortality at between 10 and 35 per one hundred
mothers. To curb the trend, Semmelweis
proposed the practice of washing hands with
chlorinated lime solutions. That was in 1847.
“When physicians imbibed this practice, the
result was resounding. Death rates were cut
down phenomenally to just about one in a
hundred! So, without doubts, hand-washing may
be the miracle drug that doesn’t need doctor’s
prescription; it is free, cheap and you cannot
overdose on it!” Onah notes.
The company executive says Unigloves Medical
Limited believes in the efficacy of hand washing,
hence its decision to participate in the Global
Handwashing Day — established in 2008 by the
Global Public-Private Partnership for
Handwashing with Soap, to motivate and
mobilise millions around the world to wash their
hands with soap. It comes up every October 15.
“The campaign is dedicated to raising awareness
of hand-washing with soap as a key approach to
disease prevention. This year’s theme for Global
Handwashing Day is ‘Raise a hand for hygiene!’”
Onah says.
In general, physicians lament that, so far,
compliance with recommended hand-washing
practices is still very poor.
“Careful hand hygiene in medical field is set to
become even more important in the future in the
provision of high quality patient care. Those in
the hospital and health sectors, hotels, food
manufacturing companies and those in related
fields must tap from the experience of
international experts by adopting products such
as hand hygiene disinfectants and accessories,
skin disinfectants, wound care products,
intravenous, administration sets lines, instrument
disinfection and sterilisation, surface and medical
equipment disinfection products, medical
instruments, sharp boxes, specimen transport
bags, repose material, etc. in the discharge of
their duties as health care providers.
“This will cut down the rate of hospital-acquired
infections and also save medical workers from
being infected through unnecessary contacts
with patients’ symptoms,” Onah submits.
The Hygiene Council says we need to wash:
Before eating, feeding children, applying contact
lenses, or giving medication or First Aid.
After using the toilet or changing a child’s nappy,
handling domestic animals, contact with blood or
body fluids, coughing, sneezing, or blowing your
nose.
Before and after handling raw food or tending to
someone who is sick.
Here’s how to do it properly:
Step 1: Wet your hands with clean running water
and work up a generous lather of soap. If there’s
anti-bacterial soap to hand, so much the better.
Step 2: Rub together your palms, wash the backs
of your hands and fingers, wash between your
fingers, and clean your nails by softly scratching
them on the palm of your hand.
Step 3: Rinse and wipe with clean cloth.
Where there’s no water and soap, use hand
sanitiser
It’s also vital to use sanitisers to wipe objects
that we interact with on a daily basis, including
computer keyboard/mouse, cell phones, TV
remote controls, etc.
The bottom line: Basic hand hygiene gives you a
better chance at keeping a host of nasties at
bay.

www.punchng.com/health/healthwise/hand-washing-is-a-do-it-yourself-vaccine-use-it/

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