Hand hygiene key during cold and flu season
Keeping hands clean is key to avoiding getting sick and spreading germs. The common cold accounts for nearly 22 million school days lost annually, making now an important time to remind the family of proper hand hygiene.
“There are plenty of unwashed hands out there. Only one in five of us does the job properly,” says Dr. Charles Gerba, Professor of Environmental Microbiology at the University of Arizona. “Everyone needs to be sure they understand how to wash properly and use alcohol-based instant hand sanitizers.”
Everyone’especially children’can benefit from a refresher on effective hand hygiene:
1. Tell children that clean hands are important to avoiding illness and spreading germs.
2. Show children how to wash hands properly, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructions:
‘ Wet hands with clean, warm water and apply soap.
‘ Rub hands together to create lather and scrub all surfaces (including between fingers and under nails) for 20 seconds.
‘ Rinse hands under running water.
‘ Dry hands thoroughly.
3. Help children keep clean anywhere they are. When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based instant hand sanitizers’like Purell ‘effectively kill 99.99 percent of the most common germs that may cause illness’and there is no evidence that germs become resistant to alcohol as a result. Show children how to use hand sanitizers properly:
‘ Apply alcohol-based hand sanitizer to the palm of one hand.
‘ Rub hands together’so that product covers all surfaces of hands and fingers’until hands are dry.
Remind, remind, remind. Encourage children to wash hands frequently throughout the day’before eating, and after using the bathroom and playing outside. Check with schools to see if older children can carry a travel-size container of hand sanitizer in their backpack, for quick hand cleansing when soap and water are not available.