Why Hand Washing at Regular Intervals is Essential

This is the Best Possible Habit One Can Instil

Several studies carried out during the 2006 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) suggest that washing hands more than 10 times a day can cut down the spread of the respiratory viruses by 55 percent, according to a report published by UNICEF India. Washing your hands is something your mother must have advised you since childhood. You listened at times and shrugged it off at others. However, now is the time to pay heed to her advice and follow it diligently. Hand washing at regular intervals can help prevent a host of communicable diseases from spreading. 

A Small Habit that Can Make a Big Difference

Your teachers and parents have been telling you since childhood to wash your hands. The question is what happens if you don’t? The basketball with which you play every day for an hour is probably infested with thousands of germs that can only be seen through a microscope. A friend you play basketball with might be carrying the germs of a communicable disease, such as pneumonia.

When you do not wash your hands after using the toilet, you not only contaminate any object you touch after that but you also put others are at high risk of contracting infections, such as diarrhoea, by touching the objects you touched. That is how germs spread through touch.

People carrying germs touch objects such as door knobs, fridge handles, TV remotes, laptops and phone, which are then touched by other individuals. You might also touch your nose, mouth and eyes or eat after touching contaminated objects. This means germs find easy access to infect your body. No wonder the common cold spreads through a family so fast.

When to Wash Hands

Given below are few instances when hand washing with soap becomes mandatory:

• Before eating.
• After and before food preparation (make sure to wash your hands after handling raw ingredients, like meat, and before touching other food that is to be eaten without being cooked, such as fruits).
• After using the bathroom.
• After sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose.
• After playing with pets or other animals.
• After changing diapers.
• After cleaning the house (wiping the kitchen counter, washing the bathroom, etc).
• After playing outside.
• After visiting a sick relative.

In case hand washing at regular intervals in not possible (for example, when you are not at home) due to unavailability of soap or clean water, you can use a sanitizer. Hand Sanitizer is a great choice since it helps kill 99.9 percent of the germs without water.