Washing hands before any religious ritual has been around for thousands of years. However, diseases preventing power of handwashing was discovered merely 130 years ago. This association didn’t get much appreciation for many decades. But today hand washing campaigns are run by governments and not for profit organisations as a crucial public health action. All over the world, governments are now prioritizing this campaign to reduce spreading COVID-19 virus.
Contagious diseases like COVID-19 spreads through droplets or contact transmission. Contact transmission means you touch an infected object or surface and then spread the virus by touching something else. If you touch your face then you get sick and become a walking talking virus diffuser. Therefore, hand hygiene plays a crucial role in reducing the spread of contagious diseases including COVID-19.
Besides being a mum, I am a public health professional. I am writing this article to support the WHO’s global hand hygiene campaign.
Nothing beats good old hand wash
Washing hands with soap and water is a time-honoured technique. A thorough hand wash with normal soap and water should clean your hands. You might have seen those handwash posters in your GP clinics. If not check out this video to perfect your hand wash technique.
If you want to go one step further, use antibacterial hand wash. But it is important to use a clean towel to dry your hands. When out and about, I use paper towels and at home, quick dry hand towels. Try to change your hand towel as often as practically possible. The whole process should take about 1 minute. You can print and handwash infographic and place it next to the sink to remind kids how to wash hands. Check out https://washyourlyrics.com to generate fun infographics based on your faviourite song.
How often should you wash hands?
There is no specific answer to this question, just use your common sense. I would wash my hands
- when I reach office after using public transport
- when I come home from outside
- before handling food or drinks or even entering the kitchen
- after each trip to the bathroom.
- after handling diapers and
- after touching animals
- after I take out the trash
- after work in the garden or clean the house
- whenever my hands look or feel dirty
Wash your hands often but don’t be obsessive about it.
Don’t wash your hands dry!
Our skin maintains a layer of oil and wax on the top to keep it soft and moisturised. Handwashing with harsh soap can remove this protective layer and cause dryness. Dry skin tends to crack and create a passage for germs to enter the body. When we promote handwashing, we forget to mention the importance of keeping skin healthy and moisturized. There are a few things you can do to avoid dry hands
- use lukewarm water. Hot water strips away all the moisture from the skin.
- use gentle soap or gel.
- Use moisturisers after washing your hands. If you don’t want to use moisturiser right before eating your food, try a drop of olive oil or coconut oil.
- Apply moisturizer on slightly damp skin to trap moisture in and restore the natural barrier of the skin.
- You can use any moisturiser on your hands, but thick oil-based moisturisers are better for dry skin. I keep Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula next to my handwash. It works for me.
- If you have extremely dry hands, use heavy-duty hand creams
- Make it a part of the nighttime skincare routine. Right before going to bed, moisturise your hands thoroughly (maybe put little extra) and then put-on cloth gloves. Cherish your ‘oh so soft’ hands in the morning.
- Wear protective gloves when doing chores such as washing dishes, cleaning, or gardening.
Check out my post three perfect treatments for dry hands
Hand sanitizers are useful
When you are out and about, hand sanitizers can be useful. During COVID-19 pandemic, hand sanitizers were sold out like hotcakes. For weeks they were not available in the market. I had seen people buying hand sanitizers in bulk and fighting over them. It made me wonder, how much these disinfectants can help them protect from COVID-19.
Upon some research, I learned that
- Hand sanitisers may not kill all the germs on your hands, particularly if your hands are greasy or dirty.
- Not all hand gels are effective in killing germs from your hands. They must have more than 60% alcohol to work efficiently.
- People may not be using them as advised. Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer claims to kill 99.9% of germs for that you must “Squeeze 1.2 tsp amount in your palm then briskly rub hands together until dry”.
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizers if used in excess can dry your skin
- Alcohol is inflammable, therefore hand sanitisers high in alcohol carry the risk of fire. It can be dangerous for smokers, people working in the kitchen or with electricity.
- Hand sanitisers may contain harmful chemicals.
Medical grade hand sanitisers contain above 70% alcohol and they are perfect for hospital staff who usually don’t have sweaty and greasy hands. Moreover, they need it more than anyone out of the hospital setting.
The small pack of a hand sanitiser gel can be useful when you are out and about. I have found the alcohol percentage of the following brands
- Carex antibacterial hand gel contains 70% alcohol and reportedly kills 99.99% of bacteria
- Dettol hand gel contains about 63% ethanol
- Cuticura Moisture Hand Gel contains about 57.6% ethanol and claims to kill 99.99% bacteria.
- Winter in Venise antibacterial hand cleansing gel has about 70% alcohol and kills 99.9% germs
- Derma Intensive + Hygiene Hand Gel has about 65% alcohol
- Somewhere I read that Dettol hand gel contains about 63% of ethanol but can not find the resource. if you do let me know.
There are alcohol-free options as well. For example, EcoHydra Hand Sanitiser. It claims to be effective against SARS-CoV 2 known to cause COVID-19. It also asserts to be better than other hand sanitisers. Good luck finding it anywhere (as of July 2020)
I have bought a 500 ml bottle of winter and Venise antibacterial hand sanitising gel and I use it to refill my small travel bottle to carry with me. I think this is much better than struggling to find those travel size hand sanitizers.
And your hand sanitiser should be outside your bag. if you have to shuffle through all your stuff to find sanitizer in your bag, it’s not serving any purpose. I like to use bottles that hang outside of your bag.
Learn from the queen and wear gloves
Queen wears gloves when greeting guests. They are her signature style statement as well as they protect her from germs. There is one more benefit of wearing gloves – they keep your hands warm and soft. I would not spend about 100 quids on a pair of gloves from Cornelia James. For the protection, you can use disposable gloves. Plastic or latex gloves are not very environment- friendly option. I prefer cotton gloves and put them in washing with other outdoor cloth. if you want to be more cautious soak them in detergent for 30 minutes before putting them in washing.
Practice and make it a habit
There are all sorts of contradictory opinions all over the internet, questioning the effectiveness of using glove and hand sanitizer to avoid COVID-19. There are videos proving how easy it is for a virus to enter your body, despite taking all the preventive measures. How washing hands to the bones is not practical and so on. To be honest most of them make sense. Albeit, I have decided to teach my kid, good hand hygiene. And I would motivate them to practice it so much so that it becomes their habit. Because my mum taught me all this before COVID-19 threat. And it did me good. It’s just a healthy habit to have.
Stay safe
XX