HAND WASHING - CLEAN HANDS SAVE LIVES

It great to be back here today, but I will be sharing with every steemians how washing hands can save live, when to wash our hands and every basics about hands washing.

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The importance of sanitation and water has been stressed for a very long time. Water has such a universal usefulness, so much that there is virtually no area of man 's livelihood that water does not play vital role. Man himself is made up of 70% water.

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Hand washing and hand sanitizers usage will be what I will center on.

WHY IS HAND WASHING IMPORTANT
According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, Hand-washing is described as a "do it yourself" vaccine which involves five steps which are very simple; Think, Wet, Lather, Scrub, Dry which can used to reduce the spread of some diseases such as diarrhea so as to stay healthy.

When regular and appropriate hand washing is observed most especially before and after some activities, it is one best way to remove germs, avoid sickness and prevention of germs spreading to others.

Another importance of handwashIng is that it is a medium of protecting oneself from contacting some body fluid transmitted disease.

LET US REMEMBER GERMS THAT CAUSE INFECTIONS ARE TOO SMALL TO SEE WITH NAKED EYES, THEREFORE WASH YOUR HANDS ALWAYS

WHEN SHOULD WE WASH OUR HANDS?
You might be asking that when do I need to wash my hands? Not to worry I will list some of the time to wash our hands, which are:

1. Before, during, and after foods preparation

2. Before and after eating foods

3. After touching garbage

4. After sneezing, nose blowing or coughing

5. After touching animal feed or waste

6. After handling pets food or treats

7. After toilet use

8. Before and after wound/cut treatments

9. After diapers change or cleaning up a child who has used toilet

10. Before and after caring for a sick person

HOW DO WE WASH OUR HANDS?
YES! You are surprised by this question.
Well, it is a very good question which you need to ask. You might think "is it not for me to just use water and soap to wash hands" I am happy to tell you that handwashing is far more than that.

To have an hygienic hand waahing, you have to:

• wet your hands with RUNNING water that is clean, stop the water and apply soap

• lather your hands by rubbing the togther with the soap, be sure you do same to the back of your hands, under nails, and between fingers.

• for about 15 - 20 seconds, scrub your hands

• now rinse your hand under the cleaning running water

• you can now dry your hands with a clean towel ans if you wish, you can air dry

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WHAT IF THERE ARE NO SOAP AND CLEAN RUNNING WATER?
Handwashing with saop and water is yhe best way to reduce number of microbes on them most time. But in a case where water and water is not available, alcoholic based hand sanitizers can be used.

This hand sanitizer can help reduce the number of microbes on hands quickly but it does not eliminate all germs types. Though it can inactivate some germs when used correctly but people may not use large quantity or may wipe it off before it dries up completely.

Reasearches have shown that alcoholic based sanitizers contain 60 -95% of alcohol and they are more effective than non-alcohol based sanitizers.

Non-alcoholic based sanitizers may

• not work equally well for all classes of germs

• cause germs to develop resistance to saniting agents

• irritate the skin than alcoholic based sanitizers

• reduced growth of germs instead of killing them

When hands are soiled and greasy heavily, hand sanitizers may not work well. Therefore, hand washing is highly recommended.

In conclusion, soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing or inactivating some sturbborn germs.

For further reading, click here:
here

Thanks...I remain @sallyquin