Download Handwashing - Ravalli County

Hand washing is best defense against colds, flu and food-borne illness
With the cold and flu season in full swing and holiday travel stirring up the pot of
infectious diseases, a simple, yet often-overlooked act might just keep you healthy and on
your feet this winter.
Simply put, hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread
of both viral and bacterial infections. Disease-carrying microbes can spread from person
to person by people touching one another. They also can be transmitted when a person
touches a contaminated surface and then touches his or her mouth, eyes or nose.
Good hand-washing techniques include using an adequate amount of soap and
water, rubbing hands together to create friction, and rinsing under running water. The use
of gloves is not a substitute for hand washing.
In addition to merely washing your hands, understanding the nature of infections
is important.
The common cold
The common cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract - the nose, nasal
passages and the throat. There are more than 200 viruses that can cause colds.
Cold symptoms usually show up about two days after a person becomes infected.
Early signs of a cold are a sore, scratchy throat, sneezing, and a runny nose. Other
symptoms that may occur later include headache, stuffy nose, watery eyes, hacking
cough, chills, and general ill-feeling lasting from two to seven days. Some cases may last
for two weeks.
Colds are really not very contagious, compared to other infectious diseases. Close
personal and prolonged contact is necessary for the cold viruses to spread. The viruses
must get into the nose where they can infect the nasal membranes. The virus must attach
to nasal cells after which the viruses can multiply. Inhaling contaminated droplets
produced when someone else coughs or sneezes may be one way to catch a cold.
Cold viruses can remain infective even if they are outside the body for a few
hours. You can catch a cold if you handle something that is contaminated with a cold
virus and then touch the inside of your nose or rub your eyes.
People are most infective or more likely to be able to pass on a cold around two
days after they were infected. This is when the first signs of a cold (sneezing, runny nose
and cough) appear. People can cough or sneeze out in droplets of mucus containing the
cold virus. People can also spread the cold virus on their fingers when they contaminate
them with nasal secretions (for example, someone blows their nose and then shakes hands
with someone else, who, in turn, rubs his or her eyes).
You cannot cure a cold but you can help protect yourself from getting a cold by
following good personal hygiene practices:
• washing hands properly and frequently
• covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing
• wiping noses using disposable tissues in a way that secretions are
contained by the tissue without contaminating the hands
• avoiding rubbing the eyes with dirty hands
• avoiding nail biting (especially important for infections that are
transmitted orally)
A healthy diet and getting sufficient sleep are also important in helping to prevent
colds. Our immune system is also affected by stress. Studies have shown that people are
more susceptible to getting colds after times of psychological stress.
Influenza
Influenza, commonly called “the flu”, is a contagious disease caused by viruses
that infect the respiratory tract, including nose, throat, and lungs. Influenza causes severe
illness and life-threatening complications in many people.
Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, muscle
aches, and fatigue.
Most people who get the flu recover completely. However, some people,
especially the elderly and those with chronic health problems, can develop serious
complications. These include pneumonia and aggravation of pre-existing medical
conditions such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes.
Influenza viruses mainly are spread from person to person through droplets
produced while coughing or sneezing. Droplets of an infected person are propelled by
coughing and sneezing into the air and are deposited on the mouth or nose of people
nearby. This droplet transmission of the flu is a kind of contact transmission.
Flu viruses can also be transmitted by indirect contact by touching a contaminated
object or surface and then touching your own mouth, eyes or nose before washing your
hands. Viruses can survive on surfaces for up to eight hours- longer on hard,
impermeable surfaces than on porous surfaces.
Influenza can be prevented by annual vaccination. Public health experts
recommend the influenza vaccine for the following people:
• Adults and children with chronic heart or lung disease.
• People of any age who are residents of nursing homes and other chronic care
facilities.
• People over the age of 65 years.
• People with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease.
The vaccine is also recommended for people who are capable of transmitting influenza to
those at high risk, e.g., health care workers and those providing essential community
services.
Anyone wishing to protect themselves against influenza should also consider
vaccination even if they are not in a high risk group.
To prevent the transmission of influenza use the following hygiene practices:
• Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
• Use tissues to contain respiratory droplets.
• Wash hands after contact with respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.
Frequent hand washing with is always a good idea.
Food-borne illness
Bacteria that cause food-borne illness are everywhere – in the air, soil, water and
in human and animal digestive tracts – so it’s easy for busy hands to pick them up. In the
process of performing numerous cooking tasks, your hands also touch the counter, cutting
board, utensils, pots, pans and dishes. So if your hands are not clean, they can spread
bacteria far and wide. Thorough hand washing helps protect you, your family and others
from illness.
Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds helps remove bacteria, prevent its
spread and the possible contamination of food products. It’s especially important to wash
your hands before and after preparing food, before eating, after using the bathroom,
blowing your nose or handling pets, diapers, garbage or raw food.
Wash your hands more frequently when you or someone in your home is ill.
Here is an effective way to wash you hands:
• Wet your hands with very warm water. Apply liquid soap or use clean bar soap.
Both antimicrobial and plain soap are effective.
• Rub your hands together vigorously for 20 seconds and be careful to clean all
surfaces including finger tips, around nails and under rings. The combination of
soap, warm water and scrubbing action helps remove the dirt and bacteria.
• Dry your hands with an air dryer or a clean towel.
Because it is a simple step that everyone can take, hand washing may be the best
method of preventing illness and keeping us healthy.
In order to help citizens understand more clearly many of the environmental
health issues in Ravalli County and the role of the Environmental Health Department in
addressing these issues, our department will run a series of weekly newspaper articles
titled “Environmental Health Talk.”
In this ongoing series we hope to help raise the community’s awareness of issues
such as air and water quality and give readers useful tips on topics like recycling,
collecting and disposing of hazardous materials and maintaining septic systems, just to
name a few. To this end, we welcome pubic comment. If there’s an environmental health
issue you’d like us to address, write call or email the department: RCEH, c/o
“EnviroHealth Talk,” 215 South 4th St, Suite D, Hamilton MT 59840. Phone: 375-6571.
Email: [email protected]