We can never repeat it enough, hand washing is essential. Our hands are the first transmitters of infectious diseases and yet relatively few of us wash them regularly. A recent British study interviewed people after they went to the toilet at a rest area. Of all these people, 99% said they had washed their hands. Yet CCTV cameras showed that only 32% of men and 64% of women actually did it.
Every time your hands touch an object, clothing or even a sick person, bacteria and viruses spread to you. Even if you can't see them with the naked eye, they can still infect you. It is therefore because of the subway bar or the handle of the door of your office that in winter, you catch infectious diseases, such as colds, gastroenteritis or even bronchitis.
There is only one solution to avoid these nasty diseases:regular hand washing. Even if it seems obvious, only 20% of French people say that washing their hands is a way to protect themselves from winter respiratory infections, according to a study conducted in 2012 by the National Institute for Prevention and Education for health (Inpes).
But be careful, washing your hands does not only mean running your hands under hot tap water. First of all, we remove our jewelry, especially the rings. Then we take soap (liquid or not) and clean our hands for at least 30 seconds with it. Wash your palms, backs of hands, fingernails and between your fingers. Hand drying is also important, as damp hands contain up to 1000 times more germs than dry hands.
If you ever have no soap or water to wash your hands with, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead. Ethanol is an anti-bacterial that acts on all microorganisms with which it comes into contact. We apply it on our dry hands and we rub for at least 30 seconds, passing on the palms, the back of the hands and between the fingers. After being applied, this disinfectant evaporates in just a few seconds, having killed all the bacteria in its path.
