Handwashing Awareness Week: Spread the message, not the flu
The dozen or so hand-sanitizer dispensers around my office building are a constant reminder that preventing infections can be as quick and painless as reaching out your hand. Lately I’ve spied these dispensers in numerous public places—at my local library, museums, the gym, supermarkets, the waiting area of my doctor’s office, and even at a business conference I recently attended.
But, despite the popularity and convenience factor of hand-sanitizer, a recent study in the Annals of Improbable Research showed most patients—and most medical personnel, too—disregard instructions to use them. When faced with the sanitizer dispensers, only 3 percent of health-care workers and 6 percent of patients sanitized. But another survey showed that overall Americans are taking hand hygiene seriously and lathering up. About 50 percent of respondents said they wash their hands more than 10 times per day (up from 36 percent last year), and about 70 percent said they wash their hands at least seven times a day (up from 62 percent).
While we’re certain you’re washing or sanitizing your hands regularly, if you know someone who hasn’t yet gotten the message, why not take the opportunity during National Handwashing Awareness Week to remind them to wash up—not only to prevent the spread of H1N1, but to fight the seasonal flu, common cold, and other infections and germs as well. In addition to washing your hands often with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (when soap and water are unavailable), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread that way.
- Stay home if you get sick, and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
—Ginger Skinner
If you're traveling for the holidays, see our tips on staying flu-free. For a how-to on hand washing, watch our video (above). And we'd like to hear from you: Have you noticed hand-sanitizer dispensers in public places around your city or town? Do you use them? Why or why not?