Liu Lijuan, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Characteristic Medical Center (formerly 306 Hospital).
Edited by Liu Yan/Cui Yan, Medical Science Popularization Center
World Hand Hygiene Day is celebrated annually on 5 May, initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 to highlight the importance of improving hand hygiene and reducing iatrogenic infections in healthcare care.
The hands are the part of the world where people have the most frequent contact with the outside world and are one of the main ways for pathogens to spread. According to the World Health Organization, a large number of diseases are caused by poor hand hygiene every year, including common diseases such as diarrhea, colds, and pneumonia, as well as some more serious infectious diseases such as cholera and influenza. Therefore, proper hand hygiene is essential to prevent disease and protect personal health.
The right way to do hand hygiene
(1) Wet hands: Start by moistening your hands with running water to prepare for the next step of handwashing.
(2) Apply soap: Take an appropriate amount of soap or hand sanitizer and apply it evenly to your hands.
(3) Rub your hands: Rub all parts of your hands, including palms, backs, and fingers, according to the prescribed handwashing steps, to ensure that each part is fully cleaned.
(4) Rinse: Rinse off soap or hand sanitizer from your hands with running water.
(5) Drying: Dry your hands with a clean towel or paper towel and avoid using shared towels to reduce the risk of germ transmission.
When to practice hand hygiene
Hand hygiene should be practiced throughout our daily lives, especially at the following critical moments.
(1) Before eating and after using the toilet: Hands are easy to come into contact with bacteria before eating and after going to the toilet, so you should wash your hands in time.
(2) After touching public objects: After taking public transportation and using public facilities, your hands may come into contact with other people's body fluids or secretions, so you should clean your hands in time.
(3) After contact with animals or animal feces: Animals may carry various pathogens, and hands should be cleaned in time after contact.
(4) Before preparing food: Cleaning your hands before cooking and preparing food can effectively avoid contaminants.
(5) When caring for patients: The importance of hand hygiene is self-evident when caring for patients, treating wounds, or coming into contact with patients' body fluids and blood.
Hand hygiene promotion and education
(1) Family education: Parents should cultivate good hand hygiene habits in their children and integrate this habit into daily life education.
(2) School education: The school incorporates hand hygiene education into the health education curriculum, and improves students' awareness of hand hygiene through classroom teaching and practical activities.
(3) Social publicity: The government and social organizations regularly carry out hand hygiene publicity activities to raise public awareness of the importance of hand hygiene.
(4) Publicity of medical institutions: While providing medical services, medical institutions should also strengthen hand hygiene education for patients and their families.
Hand hygiene is simple, but it plays a vital role in disease prevention and personal health, so let's start with ourselves, start from the small things in daily life, develop good hand hygiene habits, and build a solid line of defense for the health of ourselves and our families. At the same time, it is recommended that everyone actively participate in the promotion and education activities of hand hygiene, and contribute to the improvement of hand hygiene awareness and level in the whole society. Only when each and every one of us takes action can we truly realize the enormous potential of hand hygiene to prevent disease and protect health.
(The picture comes from the Internet)