Why Maintaining Hand Hygiene is Essential?
Your hands come into contact with different persons, animals, surfaces, and objects. For such, they become dirty, become contaminated with viruses, bacteria, and other germs capable of infecting you once they enter your body. Besides, can you count how many times you touch your mouth, eyes, and nose? Countless, right?
By this, you allow these germs to get inside your body directly. What’s more? We also prepare and eat food with our hands. You can contaminate food for yourself and others with improperly cleaned hands.
According to the study of the Journal of Environmental Health, only 5 percent of people properly wash their hands. You have to rub every component of your hands for at least 20 minutes to eliminate germs. If a handwashing ability isn’t available, apply use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Here’s the list of diseases that can affect you without proper hand hygiene –
l- Flu
The flu not only affects the elderly, young, or people with a defective immune system but also a healthy person. For the last couple of decades, the flu was on the upswing. Influenza is such that you have no symptoms but started to feel sick. Handwashing and rubbing hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer will protect you from
2- Conjunctivitis
Each time you feel itchy in the eyes, you certainly rub them to get rid of the discomfort. Kids excel in this to everybody and have a greater chance of disease and transmission. According to the National Institute of Health, the virus causing pink eye or conjunctivitis can survive hours to days on different surfaces. You must educate them to maintain proper hand hygiene to protect them from skin lesions, gastrointestinal problems, lung infections, and eye infections.
3- Coronavirus
No wonder you are worried about the continuing pandemic of COVID-19 or even the Coronavirus. The virus can cause respiratory illness, pneumonia, and death in severe cases, especially in the elderly and people with prior medical conditions. The virus can simply transmit from a single person to another over-breathing droplet. The virus may easily transmit from 1 individual to another via respiratory droplets. Individuals with disease might even stay asymptomatic. As a result, you might become infected and transmit the disease to others without your knowledge. Along with safety measures like home isolation, avoiding close contact with sick people, covering mouth and nose while coughing, sneezing washing hands is also equally important. In this manner, you can safeguard yourself and help to protect against the transmission of this illness.
4- Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is a viral infection that causes symptoms like fever, jaundice, liver problems, abdominal pain, and fatigue. The disease often spreads via contaminated food when an individual handler it with improperly washed hands after using washrooms. The virus is so powerful that even small traces of it can cause transmission of the disease.
5- Hand-Foot-and-mouth disease
HFMD infection is a viral disease resulting from a coronavirus. Rashes on hands and feet, sores on mouth and throat, fever, loss of appetite are major symptoms of the disease. Handwashing can substantially reduce the disease among kids. Transmission of the disease occurs through mouth, nose, blisters, and faeces matters that attach to your hands, and later onto the mouth. You need to make a habit of handwashing, and using alcohol-based hand sanitize for you as well as your kids.
6- Cytomegalovirus
Hand-Foot-and-mouth disorder HFMD or hand-foot-and-mouth disorder is a viral disease brought on by coronavirus. In a family with medical conditions for herpes, the virus can affect your fetus (unborn child) with problems including hearing and vision impairment, intellectual disability, and even death. Transmission of the virus occurs through usually passes through saliva or urine of children. People with the disease often remain undiagnosed. Using alcohol-based hand disinfectants or washing hands can ensure you and your new born is alright.
7- Salmonellosis
The bacteria live in the intestine of humans and animals and transmits through focal matters, through improperly washed fruits and vegetables, and under-cooked eggs and meat. Whenever you don’t clean your hands properly after visiting the bathroom or changing diapers, handling livestock, it attaches to your hands. To food, and from there into your intestine.
Norovirus is such a powerful germ that only a few particles can make you sick as opposed to hundreds of other viruses. Washing hands with water and soap can wash off your hand the virus. In the end, the combination of handwashing and rubbing alcohol-based hand sanitizer is best for germ-protection.
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