News - Health Care
Swine flu, Seasonal flu, and Colds... Be Gone!
By Natalie Valente, RN
Handwashing: simple, yet the single most effective way to prevent the spread of illness. To effectively prevent the transmission of germs, one must properly wash their hands. You may be thinking, “properly wash my hands?” as handwashing may seem like one of those hit-or-miss type of things: wash=good, not washing=bad. However, there is indeed a proper way to wash your hands; a way in which handwashing is most effective.
To properly wash your hands:
1: Turn water on and if hot water is accessible: allow the water to heat up to as hot as you can handle.
2: Use soap: lather the soap by rubbing your hands together. Scrub your nail beds, between your fingers, and underneath any jewelry you may be wearing. Continue scrubbing for an honest (you’re only cheating yourself!)15-20 seconds.
3) Rinse the soap from your hands
4) Dry your hands with a paper towel or a hand dryer. If you use paper towel, use the remains to turn off the faucet or and on the handle to exit the bathroom.
So, what kind of soap should you use?
It may come as a surprise that antimicrobial soap is more of a marketing phenomenon than anything else. Even the FDA concluded that the “use of antimicrobial personal care products offer no benefit over use of regular soap and water”.
In fact, the use of antimicrobial soaps may even be causing drug resistant germs. Drug resistant germs are germs that are very difficult to treat, or are resistant to antibiotics. You may also have heard these germs referred to as ‘super bugs’ - too tough even for antibiotics. Most antimicrobial soaps contain triclosan, which is an ingredient that kills microorganisms (germs). Recent studies have concluded that bacteria exposed to triclosan were resistant to 7 out of 12 antibiotics evaluated (meaning that 7 out of 12 of the antibiotics could not kill the the bacteria that has been exposed to triclosan). This means that by using antimicrobial soaps, especially ones containing triclosan, we are in fact contributing to, if not causing, antibiotic resistant infections.
Tim Parsons of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health put it best when he said, “We as consumers buy antimicrobial products to stay healthy. In our desire for protection from potentially harmful germs, we often fail to consider the risks inherent in both the chemical exposure we voluntarily subject ourselves to and the potential increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens in our household, workplace and the environment. In the absence of a known benefit, it is difficult to justify taking any additional risks. Regular soap and water have worked for centuries and there is no scientific evidence that this winning combination will lose its punch anytime soon.”
Article referenced from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Public Health News Center
A germ-y hand under a black light. Yuck!
Wash those germs off, and your off to a good start!
