One of the best ways to keep you and your family healthy is by properly washing your hands. Despite being taught to wash our hands as children, many of us don’t know the proper techniques for washing our hands correctly, or how often we should be performing this important task. We’ll walk you through the proper steps as laid out by the leading health organizations around the globe such as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.
The major health organizations have a general list of activities that they recommend washing your hands before, during and after.
Wash your hands before:
Wash your hands during:
Wash your hands after:
To effectively kill germs and help prevent the spread of infectious disease, it’s important that you know how to properly wash your hands. Following these steps will help keep you and your loved ones healthy.
It’s recommended that you wash your hands for 20 seconds once you’ve wet your hands and lathered them up.
While many people pay attention to how they wash their hands, it’s easy to ruin the process by drying your hands correctly. Having clean towels are critical to keeping your hands clean. Once you’ve rinsed your hands, be sure to use a clean towel or air dry them if a clean towel is not available.
The CDC recommends the use of soap over hand sanitizer for getting rid of germs. This is because hand sanitizers aren’t as effective at getting rid of all types of germs, and they also don’t work as well removing certain chemicals and metals. Another issue with hand sanitizers is that they often don’t work well if your hands are greasy or caked with dirt or contaminants. That said, running water and soap aren’t always readily available. In these cases, they recommend using a hand sanitizer that has a minimum alcohol content of 60%. Any sanitizer you purchase should have the percentage listed on the label.
Using hand sanitizer effectively is very similar to some of the steps for proper hand washing. These are the correct steps for using hand sanitizer: