Preventing the spread of Infection
Wellness
by Dan Cleveland
What is the importance of Hand washing?
Hand washing is important for infection and disease prevention, food safety, personal health, and school health. 164,000,000 days are lost from school due to illness, of which 22,000,000 are due to the common cold alone.
Proper hand washing helps prevent the spread of these types of infections and could drastically reduce days lost from school and or days lost from work.
Interesting Statistics
- 2/3 of adults in the US wash hands after using the bathroom.
- 1 in 4 adults don’t wash hands after changing diapers.
- Less than 1/2 of Americans wash hands after cleaning up after pets.
- 1 in 3 wash their hands after sneezing/coughing.
- Less than 1 in 5 wash their hands after touching money.
- 1 in 3 E.coli occurrences is caused from not washing hands before handling food.
What is proper hand washing?
· Wet your hands with warm water and apply soap.
· Rub your hands together vigorously to make a lather and scrub ALL surfaces of the hands (DO NOT FORGET your fingernails)
· Continue to was your hands for 20 seconds as it takes that long for soap and scrubbing action to dislodge stubborn germs.
· Need a reminder??? Sing the ABC’s in your head or Happy B-Day twice.
· Rinse your hands well under warm running water.
· Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer and if possible use a paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the bathroom door.
For more information on Hand washing please visit:
www.threeriverspublichealth.org
Cathi L. Sampson
Community Health Educator
Three Rivers District Health Department
33 West 4th Street
Fremont, NE 68025
(402) 727-5396 Ext. #18
