Global Handwashing Day, 15 Oct 2010

Global Handwashing Day - Clean hands save lives

The trend of celebrating October 15, 2008 as Global Handwashing Day continues this year too. The motto as it were is mobilize people and transform handwashing from being just an abstract idea to an automatic behavioural practice followed in homes, schools and communities across the globe. So, wash your hands and eliminate the risk of cross contamination of germs to your healthy neighbours and kids around.

The tips below will give you much needed information to keep illness free :

• Soap : The best way to keep your hand germ-free is to use soap and water. According to The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hand-washing is the top recommended ways to avoid catching cold and flu virus.
  Consider an alcohol-based hand sanitizer as an alternative when soap and water aren’t handy. It’s the best to buy and carry a sanitizer with alcohol content above 60%. 
• Say no to hot water : Though you might run away from cold water during winters but let us tell you that according to a study published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, washing hands with hot water has no effect on the bacterias present in hand. On the contrary, you might end up having dry skin. 
• Rinse to get lather : You should not just put your hand under cold water and wait for the bacteria and viruses to die on their own. In fact you must scrub your fingers, palms, finger nails and back of hands for a minimum of 40 seconds. 
• Wash often : Not even your doctor would be able to tell you to wash hands five times or ten times a day. The reason behind this is that you can catch floating germs all round the clock. Spare yourself the horror of ‘how many times’ and go and wash your hands each time you feel intuitive about it. Your keyboard, door knob, telephone and plenty of other objects that you come in touch with are loaded and reloaded with germs.
• Eye your hands : It is important that you keep your hands clean because unknowingly you touch your eyes, nose and mouth with your hands quite frequently. Place a handkerchief to cover your mouth while sneezing. This way you’ll protect both yourself and others from further spread of cold and flu virus.  

Spread the word and not germs!

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