Wash your hands to prevent disease

The month of festivities has started and it is important to focus on food-safety practice. Jamaica has been forced over recent months to refocus its attention on infectious diseases and their threats.

Infectious diseases have long been with mankind and will continue to be, as they are facilitated by global problems such as poverty, poor access to health care, improper sanitation and housing, unclean water and human migration, according Dr Rosemarie Wright-Pascoe, chair of the organising committee for the Faculty of Medical Sciences at a recently held annual research conference and workshop 2010, where the focus was infectious diseases.

Infectious diseases are passed directly from one person or animal by coming in contact with waste or discharges from the body or indirectly from touching objects that are contaminated with disease-causing organisms or by vectors, like flies, mosquitoes and ticks, writes Wright-Pascoe.

As we handle food this festive season, there is one simple but powerful and proven practice which has been shown to reduce the spread of as much as 80 per cent of diseases, and that is hand washing.

Hand-washing guidelines

1. Wet your hands with clean running water, warm if possible.

2. Apply soap and create suds while rubbing hands together. Rub back of hands, between fingers, clean under nails, especially with long nails, a brush will be useful. It is not necessary to use an antibacterial soap.

3. Continue to rub hands for 15-20 seconds.

4. Rinse hands properly under running water. A communal basin or bowl with stagnant water is not a good option as seen sometimes in basic schools.

5. Dry hands properly using paper towel or an air dryer. The paper towel can be used to turn the pipe off. Do not use a dirty rag, towel or handkerchief to dry hands.

When you are on the go and running water is unavailable, you should still clean your hands with alcohol-based hand sanitisers. They should contain between 60 and 95 per cent alcohol.

1. Apply the product, according to the directions, to the palm of one hand.

2. Rub hands together, between fingers, nails and back of hand until your hands are dry.

Some Jamaicans consider themselves 'tough' but hand washing can save lives. We are all at risk but elderly, young, and sick people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk for disease. Two recent surveys carried out in public restrooms in the United States show males tending to wash their hands much less than women. Let us all practise hand washing this season and beyond. We might just be preventing our own illness.

Rosalee M. Brown is a registered dietitian/nutritionist who operates Integrated Nutrition and Health Services; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.