Hand Washing – How to Wash your Hands

Hand Washing – How to Wash your Hands

Handwashing with soap and water is the single best way to avoid getting COVID, and it’s also the easiest way.
It not only mechanically removes a lot of germs, but it also chemically kills a lot of germs.
This includes busting to open the virus that causes COVID, SARS-CoV-2. But it also does it for most other viruses and bacteria.
A study was done in 2013:
– Most people wash their hands for about 6 seconds.
– 25% of people did the “splash and dash,” meaning they just wet their hands without using soap.
– 5% spent more than 15 seconds washing, rubbing, and rinsing their hands.
– 5% of them washed their hands correctly.

Also, a 2017 study that compared liquid and foam soaps from the same brand found that washing with foam soap was less effective than liquid soap, probably because with the foam, you can rinse it off faster.

So if you get to choose which soap to go with, go for the liquid.
If there’s no soap available, just rubbing your hands together under the water is better than nothing.

There are some commonly missed areas when people wash their hands. The most common areas are the lower palm, fingernails, and nail bed area.

And so, the correct way to wash your hands:
1. Turn water on
2. Rinse hands
3. Apply soap
4. Lather vigorously for at least 20 seconds
5. Clean all parts of hands (back of hands, fingers, fingertips, fingernails, thumbs,&wrists
6. Rinse
7. Dry with a paper towel. If not available, dryer.
8. Use a paper towel to turn off the faucet (unless it’s one of those automatic faucets)
9. And if there are no paper towels, and it’s not one of the faucets that turn off immediately, leave the running water. I’m kidding, use your feet.

And when it comes to drying your hands, paper towels actually have a beneficial effect, because dry hands are also less likely to spread contamination than wet hands.

Remember, keep your fingernails short, because Bacteria like to live in that area underneath your fingernails, and Long nails make it harder to keep those areas clean.
Also, use hand lotion, especially during the winter. Keeping the skin on your hands intact (free of cracks) is essential to good hand hygiene.

Don’t be in such a hurry. Hand washing should last at least 20 seconds, but this should be the minimum time. Singing happy birthday equates to about 20 seconds, but just sing your favorite song for 20 seconds. And that 20 seconds does not include the time you take for drying your hands. It takes about 1 minute to properly wash and dry your hands from start to finish.

As long as your hands are not visibly dirty, hand sanitizer is a great alternative to washing your hands if you can’t get to a sink.
Most viruses, including coronavirus as well as influenza virus, have lipid membranes that are killed by alcohol-based hand sanitizer. This applies to most bacteria as well.
Just make sure it’s at least 62% alcohol.
Make sure to use enough hand sanitizer so that it covers all the surfaces on your hands. Rub that on until your hands feel dry, which should take about 20 seconds.

A commonly asked question is how often should you wash your hands, or use hand sanitizer?
There’s no specific number of times you need to wash your hands, it really depends on your activities.
According to the CDC, you should do it to stay safe from COVID
• Before, during, and after preparing food, and before eating
• Before and after tending to someone who’s sick
• After using the bathroom
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching garbage
• After touching an animal, or touching pet food or pet waste

It’s important to always have clean hands before touching your face because that’s the most common way viruses and bacteria go from surfaces to inside your body.

And we knew this before COVID 19 ( Coronavirus ) became a thing.
But most people brush off the importance of hand hygiene.
Rinsing your hands with water by itself actually does a pretty decent job of mechanically removing germs and viruses from your hands, but soap increases the overall effectiveness by pulling unwanted material off your skin and into the water.
And drying your hands is an important step in the hand-washing process, because generally speaking, wet hands are more likely to spread germs than dry hands.

Besides, handwashing, there are some other things you can do to avoid getting—and spreading—cold and flu germs and coronavirus :
– Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth, because that’s how the germs get in your body.
– When you’re sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from becoming infected.
– Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and throw away the tissue right away. If you don’t have a tissue handy, sneeze or cough into your elbow, not your hands.

– Doctor Mike Hansen