Clive Anderson
AS WE are in the flu season, it is perhaps timely to look again at a common practice. One that the U.S. Centres for Disease Control describes as the most important means of preventing the spread of infection - good hand-washing.
Follow this scenario - someone with a cold or flu sneezes or coughs into his/her hand, or the person uses his/her hands to wipe or blow the nose, then touch a door handle or phone; you later touch that same handle or phone or shake hands with the person; then you touch your face or nose. That's all it takes for the virus to travel from the sick person to the new host - you. Colds and flus are among a group of diseases spread through indirect contact with respiratory secretions.
LAST HURDLE
What makes this scenario even more frightening than usual is the fact we are under the threat of a possible global pandemic of avian influenza. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that all the prerequisites, except one, are in place for the start of such a pandemic. The last hurdle for this killer virus is to establish efficient human-to-human transmission. And that brings us back to good, regular hand-washing to prevent human-to-human disease transmission.
Colds and flus are not the only threats. Good hand-washing can prevent the spread of diseases passed on through faecal-oral transmission. These infections are spread through the ingestion of even the tiniest particle of faecal matter. This is why washing hands after using the bathroom is extremely important. The diseases spread in this manner include salmonellosis, shigellosis, hepatitis A, giardiasis, enterovirus, amebiasis, and campylobacter.
Diseases may also be spread when hands are contaminated by urine, saliva or other body fluids. These diseases include typhoid, cytomegalovirus infections and staphylococcal diseases.
When we wash our hands with soap and water the germs, oils and dirt particles are trapped in the soap lather and subsequently washed away. For good hand-washing technique do the following:
Wet hands under running water.
Lather hands with soap for at least 10 seconds - rubbing fingers together and washing well the areas between the fingers and under the nails. Do this away from the running water so as not to wash away the lather.
Rinse carefully under running water.
Dry hands on a clean towel. Use paper towel to turn off the tap and dispose of properly.
Simple, you may say, we all learnt that from our parents. Research carried out by the American Society for Microbiology found that many travellers in international airports in the USA were not washing their hands after using the toilet. The actual numbers were 19 per cent in Miami International Airport, 27 per cent in Chicago and 30 per cent in New York International Airport. This contrasted with a telephone survey in which 95 per cent of persons reported that they always washed their hands after using the toilet.
A little thing like hand-washing can have a powerful impact on the spread of communicable diseases, and may even prevent a new epidemic.
Dr. Clive Anderson is a dermatologist and venereologist; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.
