It’s not rocket science; you squirt a bit of soap, swirl your hands around under water and wipe your hands on your pants…right?
According to the World Health Organisation it should take you 42.5 seconds to wash your hands PROPERLY. It takes 42.5 seconds of meticulous hand washing to be able to actually kill off the bacteria that will cause you to be bed ridden with a hot water bottle.
Cold viruses have been shown to survive on indoor surfaces for seven days though their ability to cause infection decreases after approximately 24 hours. Flu viruses however, are active on hard surfaces for a whole 24 hours, surviving on tissues for 15 minutes and can live on the hands for five minutes!
What’s worst is that the germs that cause stomach bugs (i.e. gastro) can survive for 1-4 hours on hard surfaces. Research has shown that staff who use alcohol-based sanitizers are SIX times more likely to have an outbreak of norovirus compared to staff who cleaned their hands using soap and water. Stubborn stomach flus CANNOT be killed by just hand sanitiser alone!
We wash our hands everyday but if we’re not doing it correctly then it is just a pointless, empty gesture. Hand hygiene is an easy, inexpensive, and effective mean to prevent the spread of germs and to keep everyone healthy so we’ve listed the simple steps to effectively wash your hands along with a video:
Step One: Rub palms together.
Step Two: Rub each palm front to back over the back of the other hand, interlacing fingers.
Step Three: Twist palms with fingers interlaced, and rub between fingers.
Step Four: Interlock your fingers, (thumbs should be on opposite sides), and twist again, this time, backs of fingers against palms.
Step Five: Clasp your left thumb in your right hand and move thumb in circular motion — then switch thumbs.
Step Six: Press your right fingers together and rub them in a circular motion on your left palm, then switch
Can’t visualise it? Check out the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PmVJQUCm4E