Believe it or not, washing your hands may be simplest way to stay healthy all year long. Dan Diekema. MD, infectious disease specialist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, talks about why this simple step is so important in our overall health:
What are the benefits of proper hand washing?
It really helps to prevent the spread of infection caused by bacteria and viruses from you to others and from others to yourself.
On the flip side, what are the dangers of not washing your hands properly?
It increases the risk that, if you have an infection like an upper respiratory infection or cold, it you’ll pass it along ,or conversely, increases the risk that if someone else has such an infection, that it could be spread to you.
People wash their hands without thinking about the technique. What is the proper way to wash your hands?
If you’re going to wash with soap and water, it’s important to make sure that you scrub your hands long enough and that you cover all the surfaces of your hand. Those are probably the two things that people most frequently forget.
You have to:
- Get your hands wet
- Use the soap
- Scrub your hands vigorously for at least 15 to 20 seconds. That sounds longer than it is. Be sure you cover the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your fingernails.
Are hand antiseptics or alcohol-based sanitizers okay to use on our hands when soap and water are not available?
Yes, those are very effective and actually those are what we prefer in the hospital and the clinics—the health care environment. I also encourage people to use them at home, as well. They’re actually highly effective—perhaps more effective—at killing bacteria and viruses on your hands. They act more quickly than soap and water and are easier to use because you can carry them with you and you don’t need to have a sink available.
People may think they only need to wash their hands when they are visibly dirty. Is that often enough to kill germs?
No. If you have visible dirt on your hands, the alcohol-based hand rubs are not going to be as effective. You need to use soap and water to rinse the dirt off your hands. If your hands aren’t visibly dirty, that’s when the alcohol-based hand rubs are very effective. Just washing when your hands are visibly dirty is not nearly enough. There are many other times when you ought to clean your hands.
Under what circumstances should everyone clean their hands?
Just to give you the most common examples
- After you use the bathroom; say that you’re caring for a child
- After changing the child’s diaper
- After handling or touching animals and pets
- Before and after you prepare food
- Before and after you eat
- After you blow your nose or cough or sneeze
- Before and after you treat minor wounds or cuts on yourself or on someone that you’re caring for
- Before and after removing contact lenses
In the hospital, we know that it’s critically important every time before and after a health care worker comes into contact with a patient, that they need to wash their hands or use the alcohol-based hand rub.
If EVERYONE followed these simple guidelines of hand hygiene, how much would it affect the cold and flu season?
I think it would have a significant impact. I think it could reduce the spread of cold viruses and influenza virus. There’s not a lot of good information that tells us exactly how much, but I would say you could probably reduce by 30 to 40 percent or more the number of respiratory tract infections we see during the cold and flu season just by improving hand washing and getting people to clean their hands more often.
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