Covenant Infection Preventionist Lacey Kovar explained that good hand hygiene is important because it prevents you from being exposed to different types of germs, therefore helping prevent people from becoming sick.
“The point of soap and water is it helps wash off those germs” Kovar said.
Surprisingly though, there is a right and wrong way to wash your hands. We did a little experiment to show how improperly washing your hands could lead to germs sticking around and you potentially getting sick.
“The powder that we used today. It’s called Glow Germ. It’s actually a kit that you can use and so it fluoresces under a UV light. So you put the powder on your hands, and you can transfer it to different items, to people, to paper, and it will fluoresce once you touch things. And the importance of it is to show you that when you wash your hands.” Kovar said.
It is important to wash your hands after using the bathroom, before you eat, after changing a baby’s diaper, and while preparing food, but what is the best method to get as germ free as possible?
“So when you are washing your hands…you want to make sure to rub your hands together, get good friction, you want to go in between your fingers, you want to get your fingertips, you want to try and get around your wrists, as you saw earlier, some of us missed going around our wrist and around our fingernails. It’s important to try and hit those areas as well, and hit the back of both your hands as well.”
And make sure to wash your hands for atleast 20 seconds. An easy way to gauge how long to wash your hands is by singing or humming happy birthday twice.
According to the Centers for Disease Control “Handwashing can prevent about 30-percent of diarrhea-related sicknesses and about 20-percent of respiratory infections” so it is worth sitting down with your kids to teach them proper hand hygiene. And remember that supervision is the best tool to ensure that your kids are washing their hands properly and not spreading germs around. For more information, visit our website at EverythingLubbock.com.
