Do you know that global estimates of hand washing after using the toilet stand only at 19%? That is how lame people are when it comes hand hygiene. Given that sample figure, it is now easy to understand why many people get sick and make other people also get sick. But why the hands?
THE BEST GERM CARRIERS
The hands are the biggest culprits in the spread of infections. They get in contact with several things as they are the most used parts of the human body. In animals, it is their feet that is in contact with all surfaces including surfaces with faecal matter.
Now that we cover our mouths with face masks and our faces with face shields, we limit interactions between our hands and those other parts. But in places when we are allowed to not wear these infection-control tools, we tend to forget that we have touched surfaces in the toilet, in the kitchen and even our faces.
When you sneeze, the reflex action that follows is covering the mouth. When in a bus, you stand with your hands gripping the handrail.
All of these scenarios clearly illustrate that the hands are the best conveyors of germs, but unluckily, due to the many concerns we have at work and at home, we forget that we are people, and our tendency to overlook threats of things that we don’t see with our naked eyes are the ones to blame for the health mishaps that we are currently suffering, like this pandemic.
Our best remedy in these trying times? Wash our hands as soon as the opportunity presents itself. In the restroom, wash your hands before leaving. Before eating, wash your hands. After sneezing, wash your hands and face. When you get home after work, make it a point to wash your hands and body before getting into an interaction with the other members of your family. Also, there are sanitizers you can use whenever immediate access to water and soap is impossible.
DON’T BE ONE OF THE NUMBSKULL
Since the importance of hand washing has already been demonstrated, the ball of responsibility has been thrown into your hands. But people are really unmindful and perhaps uncaring.
There’s this post that clearly illustrate this point. The writer works in a hospital where he observed that 9 out of 10 patients who come in to the toilets or urinals to take a dump just walked right out and grabbed the handle of the door without washing their hands.
He went on to say that people are filthy and carry with them sex organ germs that can be spread through handshakes. So, many times he refused a handshake with strangers.
He described the door handle as now rusty and is turning brown. He could imagine that it also has tons of faecal matter and millions of bacteria there from thousands of dirty hands.
Why then it is important to wash our hands? Not only because they are the best carriers of germs, but also because we want to save humanity from unclean practices that tell us all we need some kind of re-education like the one we receive in the primary grade.
Use a kin soap that comes with moisturising properties, like our esemtan skin cleanser which is enriched with Allantoin to keep your hands hydrated. If you prefer a skin soap without fragrance and colour, you can go for octenisan wash lotion which is proven to be effective against enveloped viruses (e.g. coronaviruses). Both skin soap can be used as a whole body wash.