So Why Aren't People Doing It?

By: Briana Smith  |  October 30, 2014

Infection prevention is of great importance right now, especially with Ebola and Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) featuring prominently in the news headlines. It’s even more important than ever to educate and promote proper hand hygiene not only at hospitals and healthcare facilities, but for everyone in the community, including children. Hand washing is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of infection transmission from one person to another, and it the easiest to do.

Bacteria & viruses can spread easily from one person to another whether through direct contact or when someone touches a surface contaminated by someone else who is infectious. Hand washing is considered ubiquitous when discussing infection prevention, but the problem is not everyone is actually doing it.

How Infectious Diseases Spread

Hand cross-contamination is easier than you may think; how many times do your hands touch your eyes, nose, mouth, face, etc. during the day? What else are they touching? Elevator buttons? Railings? Other frequently touched common surfaces? Infectious diseases can be spread in several ways, but the most common are:¹

• Direct Contact: Person-to-person physical contact
• Airborne: Microbes that travel when someone sneezes or coughs (sometimes up to 6 feet away)
• Surface Cross-Contamination: When someone with a contagious disease touches something (like a refrigerator handle) and then other people touch the same surface

One of the most prevalent infectious diseases are respiratory illnesses, which is the category of illnesses that the common cold, Influenza, Pertussis (Whopping Cough) and Enterovirus D68 fall into. Respiratory illnesses, as their name suggests, mainly affect the respiratory tract: lungs, sinus cavities, nose, throat, etc. Many of these tend to be contagious due to how they spread (see the above ways), especially when airborne. This is why the following is recommended to stop the spread of germs at home, work & school:²

• Stay home when you are sick
• Cover your mouth & nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing (reduces how far a virus can be spread once it is airborne)
• Avoid close contact with anyone who is sick
• Wash your hands
• Avoid touching your face, but especially your eyes, nose or mouth
• Clean & disinfect surfaces or objects

Unlike respiratory illnesses, some diseases, such as the Ebola Virus disease, are only spread through the direct contact through broken skin or sensitive mucosal tissues (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) with the blood or bodily fluids from an infected person, objects that have been contaminated with the virus (due to contact with said blood or bodily fluids, such as needles or syringes, soiled linens, etc.) or contact with infected animals.³

For more information on what WAXIE disinfectants can be used against the Ebola Virus: http://info.waxie.com/ebola

The Science of Hand Washing

Soap and water are key components of hand washing, but they are not enough to remove germs in and of themselves. The physical act of vigorously rubbing your hands together while washing with soap and water plays a HUGE role. Here’s how it all breaks down:

• Soap helps to lift and suspend dirt, bacteria and germs on your hands
• The friction caused by rubbing your hands pulls and drags the dirt, bacteria and germs from your skin
• Then the water washes them away

So make sure that you are rubbing the back of your hands, in between your fingers, under your nails and around your wrists. Also of import is the amount of time you spend rubbing your hands while hand washing. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) recommends at least 20 seconds (about the time it takes for you to sing the “Happy Birthday” song at normal speed inside your head) as that’s the approximate amount of time that it takes to sufficiently remove germs from your hands.⁴
But what should you do if soap and water are not available? This is when alcohol-based sanitizers that contain at least 60% alcohol come in to play, for they can quickly decrease the amount of bacteria that may be on the hands. The key to effective hand sanitizer use it to use the correct amount of product (not too little & not to much - read the product label) and to rub it all over your hands like you would with soap. Keep in mind though that alcohol-based hand sanitizers reduce bacteria, but do not kill viruses.

Another important thing to keep in mind is when and how often you should be washing your hands. The CDC’s guidelines are as follows:⁵

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• After using the toilet
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste
• After handling pet food or pet treats
• After touching garbage

How many people do you see skip the sink after using the restroom and then touch the door knob? If it’s someone you work with do you pass paperwork back and forth? Who else has touched that door knob or paperwork? If you touched those things, even after washing your hands, then your hands have become cross-contaminated.

One of the activities in Kimberly-Clark Professional*’s The Healthy Schools Project* helps teach both students and staff how germ transmission works. A volunteer from the class is chosen and a Kimberly-Clark Professional trainer squirts something that is easily visible onto the volunteer’s hands. After a certain amount of time has passed they show the class just how many surfaces the student touched. The Healthy Schools Project has many activities around hand hygiene education that target every age level from primary school through to higher education. To learn more about some of the activities, read "The Healthy Schools Project* in Action at CA School for the Deaf".

You may not realize, but hand washing also helps cancer survivors, small children, the elderly and other immunocompromised people stay healthy. If the spread of an illness can be prevented than there is less of a chance that people with weakened immune systems will come in contact with a virus or bacteria, thus limiting their exposure to a potentially devastating health complication.

Good hand hygiene habits cannot prevent the spread of all infectious diseases, but they will make a dent. It's important to have an effective cleaning routine that works with your needs whether at work or home. A healthcare facility has different needs than that of a kindergarten classroom. So the next time you see someone start to walk out of the restroom without having washed their hands, you may want to point out to them how great the soap is.

Briana Smith is WAXIE’s Social Media & Product Branding Specialist and spends quite a bit of time skimming the news for what’s new in cleaning, sustainability and technology while managing all of WAXIE’s social channels. She especially loves posting about #teamwaxie activities & conversing with customers on Instagram. Briana has a Bachelor's Degree in Communication Design from California State University, Chico.

REFERENCES
1.    http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/infectious-diseases
2.    http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/stopgerms.htm
3.    http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/index.html
4.    http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/
5.    http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html