Thursday, October 15, 2009
Now wash your hands .
That's right folks, now wash your hands, because today is Global Handwashing Day . A whopping two-thirds of men don't wash their hands with soap after going to the toilet, according to a British study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. See that trio of averagely hygienic-looking men by the water fountain? Two of them almost certainly gave their hands a quick spray under the tap or didn't even bother going that far before breezing out of the men's loos.
But before women combust with self-righteous disgust, it would appear that the fairer sex aren't a whole lot more hygienic, with one in three also revealed to be soap dodgers. There is a serious side to all this. Health authorities the world over are stepping up efforts to persuade people to wash their hands properly to help slow the spread of H1N1 swine flu, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation in June.
And simple handwashing with soap is most cost-effective way of disease control, according to the study's authors. "It could save more than a million lives a year from diarrhoeal diseases, and prevent respiratory infections – the biggest causes of child mortality in developing countries." In developed nations, handwashing can help prevent the spread of flu, sickness and diarrhoea bugs such as norovirus and rotavirus, as well as hospital bugs such as MRSA and C difficile, they added.
...It seems so bad to me that here in the UK half of the population are not washing their hands after using the toilet. We are supposed to be living in a civilized developed country but our hygiene habits can be very third world! There is no need for this sloppiness and people should be sensible about their own hygiene. Because we touch so many things in our day to day lives, it is important that we wash our hands regularly to stop cross contamination and the spread of disease. I always like that final hand wash that I do in the bus depot at the end of my shift. I know that I am going home clean from handling all that luggage with it's high risk of harbouring germs in transit. This simple handwashing is probably why I very rarely catch a cold or the flu.
That's right folks, now wash your hands, because today is Global Handwashing Day . A whopping two-thirds of men don't wash their hands with soap after going to the toilet, according to a British study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. See that trio of averagely hygienic-looking men by the water fountain? Two of them almost certainly gave their hands a quick spray under the tap or didn't even bother going that far before breezing out of the men's loos.
But before women combust with self-righteous disgust, it would appear that the fairer sex aren't a whole lot more hygienic, with one in three also revealed to be soap dodgers. There is a serious side to all this. Health authorities the world over are stepping up efforts to persuade people to wash their hands properly to help slow the spread of H1N1 swine flu, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation in June.
And simple handwashing with soap is most cost-effective way of disease control, according to the study's authors. "It could save more than a million lives a year from diarrhoeal diseases, and prevent respiratory infections – the biggest causes of child mortality in developing countries." In developed nations, handwashing can help prevent the spread of flu, sickness and diarrhoea bugs such as norovirus and rotavirus, as well as hospital bugs such as MRSA and C difficile, they added.
...It seems so bad to me that here in the UK half of the population are not washing their hands after using the toilet. We are supposed to be living in a civilized developed country but our hygiene habits can be very third world! There is no need for this sloppiness and people should be sensible about their own hygiene. Because we touch so many things in our day to day lives, it is important that we wash our hands regularly to stop cross contamination and the spread of disease. I always like that final hand wash that I do in the bus depot at the end of my shift. I know that I am going home clean from handling all that luggage with it's high risk of harbouring germs in transit. This simple handwashing is probably why I very rarely catch a cold or the flu.
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