Are Your Hands Dirty?
house of YAD research

While it may seem amusing at first, this is really a very serious issue. Not washing your hands can be dangerous and even fatal.  It is important to wash your hands before and after handling food products, after handling pets, before eating, and whenever one is sick, or is around people who are. Despite the generally held belief that cold germs are spread through sneezing and coughing, the majority of transmission comes from hand-to-hand contact and transfer of germs.

We carry millions of microbes on our hands. Most are harmless, but we can pick up some that cause illnesses, such as colds, flu, and diarrhea.

When we forget to wash our hands, or don't wash them properly, we can spread these germs to other people, or give them to ourselves by touching our eyes, mouths, noses or cuts on our bodies.

We can also pick up germs from objects, such as doorknobs and stair railings, touched by other people who aren't good handwashers.

We can also pick up germs from objects, such as doorknobs and stair railings, touched by other people who aren't good handwashers. Think about all the things we touch each day and how many people may have touched them before us.

To learn more about what happens when people don't wash well or often enough check out this video on handwashing made by students at River Ridge High School in New Port Richey, Fla. (You can choose the 2.2M high bandwidth version or, if you're using a modem, the 513K low bandwidth version might be a lot faster for you. You'll need the Quicktime player to view these video files. You can download it for free here.)

Handwashing with warm water and soap can greatly reduce the chances of spreading or getting germs. The mechanical action of scrubbing loosens up the dirt and microbes on our hands and the soap picks them up and binds to them so that the water can wash them away.

So when should you wash your hands? Stop and think of the times you wash up each day. Can you do better? Of course you can. Not to suggest that you become a wash-hand freak.

According to a 2000 report by the American Society of Microbiology, at least one third of Americans appear to have forgotten the single best piece of infection control advice Mom ever gave them - always wash your hands after you go to the bathroom.

While 95 percent of men and women surveyed say they wash their hands after using a public restroom, only 67 percent of people actually do wash before leaving the restroom, according to the results of a new survey and observational study conducted for the American Society of Microbiology's Clean Hands Campaign released last year at the ASM's Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy meeting (ICAAC).

More than nine in ten adults (95%) say they wash their hands after using public restrooms; however, just six in ten (67%) were observed doing so.

Despite increased publicity over the past several years about the importance of basic handwashing in limiting the spread of infectious disease, men and women in several American cities are even less likely to wash today than they were four years ago.

"Hand washing is the simplest, most effective thing people can do to reduce the spread of infectious diseases," according to Julie Gerberding, M.D., Director of the Hospital Infections Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than nine in ten adults (95%) say they wash their hands after using public restrooms; however, just six in ten (67%) were observed doing so. Among the observational findings from public restrooms, the dirtiest hands are in New York. Only 49 percent of the 2,283 people observed washed their hands after using a restroom in Grand Central/Penn Station.

Conversely, Chicagoans washed their hands most often (83% of adults observed) after going to a public restroom, followed by adults in San Francisco (80%). New Orleans and Atlanta were tied at 64 percent.

Across all cities, women washed their hands more often than men (75% versus 58%).

Across all cities, women washed their hands more often than men (75% versus 58%). This disparity was the most pronounced in Atlanta, where 84% of women at a Braves' game washed up compared to only 36% of men.

Americans are also likely to say they wash their hands after changing a diaper (78%) and before handling or eating food (77%). However, many say they don't wash up after petting an animal (45%), coughing or sneezing (31%) or handling money (20%).

Interestingly, Americans with college degrees are slightly less likely than those without college degrees to say they wash their hands. 

It is well documented that the lack of handwashing spreads disease in health care-related settings; however, the impact of handwashing on infectious diseases among the general public in community settings had not been as extensively studied.

Several studies show that most physicians and nurses believe they wash their hands correctly; however, researchers have observed that even the handwashing technique of healthcare professionals can be inadequate (as they wash their hands only 30% of the required time between patient contact and procedures, if they wash their hands at all. (US Centers for Disease Control).

IMPORTANCE OF HANDWASHING

Disease Prevention

The CDC reports that handwashing is one of the "most important means of preventing the spread of infection;" it is the first line of defense for infectious diseases, including respiratory infections and gastrointestinal disorders, among others.

Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death and disease worldwide as well as the third leading cause of death in the United States.

CONSEQUENCES OF POORLY WASHED HANDS

Antibiotic Resistance

In addition to preventing widespread public health epidemics, regular handwashing can reduce the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Food-Related Illness

Each year an estimated 79 million people in the U.S. become ill from food-related diseases each year, resulting in an estimated 5,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Poor hygiene, generally unwashed or poorly washed hands, contributes to many food-related illness outbreaks, according to the CDC. Hands can transfer germs from contaminated raw meat, eggs and poultry to other foods, or from an infected person to the food.

While many people are aware that you can get sick from eating food contaminated by E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria, it is not as well known that other ways of transmission, such as touching surfaces contaminated with this strain of E. coli, also can cause illness.

Infection in Childcare Centers

According to the U.S. Department of Education (1995) 31 percent of children under age 6, almost 7 million, attend daycare outside their homes. Of all the children under age 6, 60 percent, about 13 million, receive some type of care and education from persons other than their parents. Children attending daycare are at greater risk for respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. Furthermore, they are likely to spread these diseases to other family members and people in the community. It has been demonstrated that proper handwashing can substantially decrease the incidence of diarrhea in children attending daycare centers.

Infection from Pets

The CDC has reported an alarming number of salmonella infections, in both adults and children, that were associated with reptiles.

All pet owners need to take adequate measures after handling and cleaning up after their pets, including proper handwashing.

Sources

- American Society for Microbiology