HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — It's National Handwashing Awareness Week, and the CDC said many germs that can make people sick are spread when we don't wash our hands with soap and clean, running water.
The CDC also explains that teaching people about handwashing helps them and their communities stay healthy. Studies show that handwashing education in the community can:
- Reduce the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by about 23%–40%
- Reduce the number of school days children missed because of gastrointestinal illness by 29%–57%
- Reduce diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by about 58%
- Reduce respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by about 16%–21%
Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Ali Hassoun said hand hygiene is actually one of the most important parts in infection control. "If we want to choose one thing that we want to do, it's going to be hand hygiene all the time. Hand hygiene actually saves lives in the way of reducing transmission of bacteria, viruses, all different kind of infectious agents."
That will cut down on resistant organisms, infection rates, and serious infections. So what is the correct hand washing practice? "So it depend on what you use to wash your hands. um, we always have. either we use the alcohol gel we usually recommended because it's easier to wash hands with it. and the alcohol gel that have about 70% alcohol in it, that's the most effective. and actually with that, if you use the alcohol gel, it's very important to, you know, when you put the alcohol gel in your hand, you're going to need to be where you that get distributed all over your hand, between your fingers on the nail. and that include that about 30 to 40 seconds if you're going to wash your hand with water. and so that takes a little bit longer. so we recommend about 3 minutes to wash with water and soap."
ADPH District Medical Officer Dr. Wes Stubblefield agrees and adds that should an individual come down with a respiratory illness, respiratory etiquette is key. "Coughing into your elbow, keeping your hands clean. plenty of plenty of ventilation of course, mask use if if you're if you're someone that's at high risk or you feel like you need to wear a mask, those those things can be helpful in preventing illnesses."
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