Today, more than ever, our world is focused on staying healthy. With the recent pandemic, we focused on keeping our loved ones safe—safe from sickness, safe from disease. There are many ways you can help avoid illness for yourself and others. One of the easiest is simply washing your hands.

Proper hand washing, also known as hand hygiene, has been proven to be the single most effective way to prevent the spread of germs that cause disease. Approximately 80% of illness-causing germs are spread by contact or touch. Many of these germs can live for hours on common surfaces such as doorknobs, tabletops, toys and other areas. These germs can enter the body through touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Diseases transferred by contact include staph, strep, certain diarrheas, flu and respiratory/cold viruses.

Did you know?

• 1 in 5 people do not wash their hands after using the bathroom.
• Elevator buttons have 22% more bacteria than toilet seats.
• Proper hand washing could help prevent up to 1 million deaths worldwide.
• Washing your hands reduces the risk of harmful diarrheal illness by up to 40%.

How to wash your hands:

• Wet your hands with water.
• Apply soap to your hands, covering all surface from wrists down.
• Rub hands together vigorously for 15-20 seconds. (Singing the ABCs or Happy Birthday song twice is a great way to get children to wash for this length of time.)
• Be sure to scrub fingernails and between your fingers.
• Rinse your hands with water and be sure to dry them. Damp hands will spread bacteria much more easily than dry hands.

When to wash your hands:

• When preparing food
• Before eating
• After using the restroom
• When visibly soiled
• After any contact with someone who is sick. If you are in the home of a sick loved one, be sure and wash your hands after touching their items such as doorknobs, remote controls, etc.
• When you have been out in public, such as shopping or anytime you touch numerous items.

When soap and water is not available, alcohol-based hand rub is a good alternative to handwashing.

• Apply a small amount of alcohol gel to the palm of your hand and rub hands together.
• Cover all surfaces – don’t forget your fingernails and between your fingers.
• Rub hands until the alcohol has dried.

In today’s busy world, contact with other people is necessary and needed. Contact with loved ones is desired and anticipated. Protecting those we love is of utmost importance. Washing your hands, while simple and easy, is the best way to show you care.