HANDWASHING — A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Health
Handwashing, or hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning your hands with soap (or other equivalent substances) to remove harmful or unwanted substances, such as microorganisms, grease, dirt, etc.[1] Find it pretty elementary, right? I confess. However, this simple yet effective technique is one of the key reasons for our survival in this germ-filled world and hence has been a major breakthrough in medicine and, on a wider scale, in our lives.
In order to fully comprehend the significance of handwashing, lets time travel back to when it originated. Religious handwashing rituals have existed for centuries in multiple religions, such as Islam, Judaism, etc. But the first recorded discovery of its life-saving potential came about 50 years earlier in 1848, following the adoption of the notion that germs spread by hands into the medical belief system.
“If there had to be a father of handwashing, it would be Ignaz Semmelweis,” says Miryam Wahrman, a professor of biology at William Paterson University in New Jersey and author of ‘The Hand Book: Surviving in a Germ-Filled World’.[2]
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician and scientist.[3] While working at Vienna General hospital in the city of Vienna in Austria, he perceived that the maternal deaths in the doctor-led maternity ward were considerably higher than in the midwife-run clinic there and cudgeled his brains for clues as to why. In the 1840s, germs had not been discovered by then, and it was still believed that diseases spread by miasma- bad smells in the air emanating from rotting corpses, sewage or vegetation. So, it was considered justifiable for trainee doctors to go around from dissecting a corpse in morgue to determine its cause of death, to delivering a baby in maternity ward, all without washing their hands in between. Once, one of such doctors got inadvertently cut by a scalpel while carrying out a dissection, resulting in his death seemingly of the same childbed fever that mothers had been a victim of. This provoked Semmelweis to hypothesize that cadaverous particles from the morgue were the culprit and that such particles, borne on doctors’ hands, were transmitted all the way into the women’s bodies during childbirth, ultimately rendering most of these women dead. To put his theory to test, he directed doctors to wash their hands and instruments in a chlorine solution, a substance he expected to eliminate the fatal smell of the cadaverous particles.
Before the experiment, remarks Wahrman,”the mortality rate for new mothers was as high as 18%. After Semmelweis implemented hand hygiene between the morgue and the delivery room, the rate of mortality for new mothers dropped to about 1%.”[4]
Despite his success, Semmelweis’s idea initially faced dramatic resistance , but it was not long before the public’s perception of handwashing underwent a metamorphosis, and it eventually turned into one of the few practices that is performed by us numerous times each day now!
So now having accompanied me on a short walk through the history of handwashing, you might be actually questioning yourself, “But what if we are not doctors, do we still need to wash our hands regularly?” The answer to that is YES! But why? Simply because your hands are gross. It is a fact of life. You touch hundreds of surfaces each day, all of which contain their own little worlds of nasty germs. But you might not realize just how gross your hands really are. Take a look:
· There are between 2 to 10 million bacteria on your fingertips and elbows.
· The number of germs doubles after you use the toilet.
· When you do not wash your hands, you transfer germs to the food and drinks you eat.
· Your hands spread 1000 times more germs when they are damp than when they are dry.
On the contrary, over-handwashing may be as disadvantageous for you as under-handwashing is. This is because bacteria exposure is not always a bad thing to be avoided and actually helps us in many ways, since trillions of bacteria contribute to our inner microbiomes that are responsible for much of our immunity. Our immune systems need practice, which is partially why rates of various illnesses have gone up as we have come to fear germs more and more.[5]
Now that you have gained so much knowledge regarding handwashing, especially its importance, merits and demerits, you might be wondering, “Well, when and how to go about it then?” Let’s discuss it. The principle times to wash your hands are:
· Before eating food.
· Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea.
· Before and after treating a cut or wound.
· After using the toilet.
· After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet.
· After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
· After touching an animal, animal feed or animal waste.
· After handling pet food or pet treats.
· After touching garbage.[6]
Handwashing is easy. Just follow these five steps every time to wash your hands:
1. Wet your hands with clean, running water, turn off the tap, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the ‘Happy Birthday Song’ from beginning to end twice.
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.[7]
Conclusively, moderate and proper handwashing is one of the strongest shields that we can can equip ourselves with for protection against the assaulting germs, and it should never be taken for granted, especially on account of its ease. That said, it is truly a ‘Blessing in Disguise’.
[1] “Hand Washing — Wikipedia.”
[2] “Keep It Clean: The Surprising 130-Year History of Handwashing | World News | The Guardian.”
[3] “Ignaz Semmelweis — Wikipedia.”
[4] “Keep It Clean: The Surprising 130-Year History of Handwashing | World News | The Guardian.”
[5] Ago, “Hand Washing Advantages and Disadvantages.”
[6] “When and How to Wash Your Hands | Handwashing | CDC.”
[7] “When and How to Wash Your Hands | Handwashing | CDC.”
Credits:
- Fig.1 provided by Science Photo Library, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
