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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has declared Dec. 6 to 12 as National Handwashing Awareness Week. Hand Hygiene and Awareness is promoted throughout the year by public health officials and is especially important during flu season.
The current H1N1 influenza pandemic gives all of us additional reason to use basic infection prevention and control methods at all times. Basic common sense regarding hand hygiene and hand awareness is the message from infection prevention and control experts. It seems like it would be a “no brainer,” but handwashing is not a routine activity for many.
The simple strategy of hand washing was shown to be effective in preventing disease in 1847 when the Austrian physician Ignac Semmelweis showed deaths in mothers from an infection following childbirth could be reduced simply by making doctors and medical students wash their hands in a disinfectant solution before entering the maternity ward. According to The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hand hygiene is still the single best way to prevent health care-associated infections, common colds and influenza.
The CDC states human hands are the most common means of transmitting germs. Hands laden with millions of microscopic germy organisms, picked up from environmental surfaces like doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles, cell phones, pagers, office equipment and other people's hands, transfer organisms to everything we touch. When our contaminated hands touch our mucous membranes, specifically eyes, nose or mouth, these germs can enter our body and can cause diseases such as the common cold, influenza, hepatitis A, and conjunctivitis. If contaminated hands touch a break in the skin, the result could be a skin or soft tissue infection from MRSA, a form of staph aureus infection that is resistant to common antibiotics.
Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-related gastrointestinal illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli infection. According to the CDC, as many as 76 million Americans get a food-borne illness each year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their illness. Others experience the annoying signs and symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
— Laurel Holmer is an Infection Control Practitioner with the Tahoe Forest Health System.
The current H1N1 influenza pandemic gives all of us additional reason to use basic infection prevention and control methods at all times. Basic common sense regarding hand hygiene and hand awareness is the message from infection prevention and control experts. It seems like it would be a “no brainer,” but handwashing is not a routine activity for many.
The simple strategy of hand washing was shown to be effective in preventing disease in 1847 when the Austrian physician Ignac Semmelweis showed deaths in mothers from an infection following childbirth could be reduced simply by making doctors and medical students wash their hands in a disinfectant solution before entering the maternity ward. According to The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), hand hygiene is still the single best way to prevent health care-associated infections, common colds and influenza.
The CDC states human hands are the most common means of transmitting germs. Hands laden with millions of microscopic germy organisms, picked up from environmental surfaces like doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles, cell phones, pagers, office equipment and other people's hands, transfer organisms to everything we touch. When our contaminated hands touch our mucous membranes, specifically eyes, nose or mouth, these germs can enter our body and can cause diseases such as the common cold, influenza, hepatitis A, and conjunctivitis. If contaminated hands touch a break in the skin, the result could be a skin or soft tissue infection from MRSA, a form of staph aureus infection that is resistant to common antibiotics.
Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-related gastrointestinal illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli infection. According to the CDC, as many as 76 million Americans get a food-borne illness each year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their illness. Others experience the annoying signs and symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
— Laurel Holmer is an Infection Control Practitioner with the Tahoe Forest Health System.
