Why Hand Hygiene is critical?
Human touch (Skin) connects people to the world, from expressing affection to maintaining one’s livelihood, healthy skin is necessary in order to experience a fulfilling life. However, all hygiene workers should maintain a healthy skin. If you are constantly exposing yourself to dangerous pathogens and not conducting proper hand hygiene, you are putting yourself and those around you, at risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza (i.e. the flu) costs U.S. companies approximately $10.4 billion and causes 31.4 million outpatient visits every year. Healthcare associated infections and foodborne illness are also costly to the country’s economy and a significant risk to people’s health.
Burden of food-borne illnesses in India is comparable to malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. It is estimated that every year 100 million cases of food-borne diseases (FBD) are reported in India and it costs $15 billion annually to the country. By 2030, food borne diseases are expected to rise to 150-177 million annually.
In both cases, some amount of illness can be prevented by proper hand hygiene, which provides greater benefit if the person has healthy skin. When it comes to hand hygiene, every moment counts. Hygiene workers must know when to conduct hand hygiene and have access to effective hand care products to prevent illness as well as damage to their skin.
Maintaining good skin health
According to the CDC, conducting hand hygiene is the single most important step people can take to prevent illness and the spread of germs to others. An important step in maintaining healthy skin is proper and frequent handwashing.
Handwashing involves five easy steps: wet, lather, scrub, rinse and dry.
To contain the spread of germs and limit the spread of infections, hygiene workers should wash their hands:
- After using the restroom, changing diapers, cleaning up after pets or handling money
- Before and after eating
- Before and after food preparation
- After coughing or sneezing
To prevent outbreaks through handwashing, hygiene workers should:
- Wet hands with warm water
- Rub hands together, making sure to scrub all areas including under the fingernails
- Rub for a minimum of 20 seconds
- Rinse thoroughly for 10 seconds
- Dry hands by single use disposable paper towel
- Turn faucet off with a paper towel, not hands, to prevent recontamination
The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes a handwashing procedure that uses a series of movements or points of technique, to ensure hands are properly washed. While frequent handwashing can protect hygiene workers from pathogens, it can create problems if the hand soap is too harsh, damaging the employee’s skin. Because handwashing removes oil from the skin, skin may lose flexibility and crack, which creates more opportunities for transient pathogens (bacteria not ordinarily on one’s skin that can cause disease) to enter the skin.
Hand soaps are often harsher on the skin than alcohol-based hand sanitizers, which generally contain moisturizers to protect the skin. It is, therefore, important for organizations to use hand soaps that contain moisturizers to replace water thus preventing dryness in the skin.
While frequent handwashing and use of hand sanitizer help to prevent the spread of germs and diseases, side effects and individual sensitivity should be considered when selecting a product.
Organizations should select hand soaps and hand sanitizers that add moisture to the skin after every use. This limits the potential for unpleasant side effects caused by repeated handwashing and hand sanitizer use, encouraging hand hygiene compliance at every critical moment.
Product efficacy
Hand sanitizers offer an effective solution for people looking to decontaminate their hands when hands are not visibly soiled or when handwashing sinks and water are not available. Handwashing should occur when hands are visibly soiled. Hand sanitizers should have a minimum of 70 percent alcohol to be considered effective against microorganism.