why is it important to wash your hands essay

Why handwashing with soap is the most effective way to stop viruses

Global Handwashing Day and the ongoing spread of COVID-19 is a timely reminder about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to stay healthy.

• 15 October 2020
• by Elinore Court

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We may not yet have vaccines or treatments against COVID-19 , but there is one powerful combo that can help stop the spread of the virus, which many of us already have access to: soap and water.

There’s a reason why governments and public health experts worldwide have been telling us to wash our hands – it really works. Good hand hygiene could reduce cases of respiratory diseases by 20%, and diarrhoea by 30% . That means it has potential to have a huge impact on the spread of the coronavirus.

Why does it work?

It comes down to chemistry. The virus itself if is made up of genetic material wrapped in a fatty coating. Soap molecules can disrupt this lipid membrane, causing it to fall apart. The virus’ “spike” proteins, which normally help it to invade human cells, are lost into the surrounding environment rendering the virus inactive. With the fragments of the virus enveloped by the soap molecules, these are then washed away when you rinse your hands.

The physical action of scrubbing your hands can also help to dislodge viral particles, which is why there has been so much emphasis on how we wash our hands and how long for. It does not matter how good your soap is if you do not apply it thoroughly enough.

Soap or sanitiser?

Sanitiser could seem like a more high-tech approach than a lowly bar of soap, and sanitisers with a very high ethanol content can act in a similar way to soap and interfere with the lipid membrane. However, they are generally not as effective as soap and water because the viral particles remain on the surface of the skin, rather than being rinsed away.

What about in communities without access to soap and water?

This is all well and good when we have soap and clean water at hand, but what about the 3 billion people worldwide who do not have it at home? Or the 1 in 6 health care facilities that lack hand hygiene facilities at points of care?

In the absence of other health interventions that can prevent the spread of viruses, such as vaccines, this is a major concern for governments and aid organisations working to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the world’s poorest countries. They are drawing up a variety of strategies, old and new, to overcome this problem.

Handwashing stations

One approach that proved successful in West Africa during the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic  has once again been deployed  there in response to COVID-19. Simple handwashing stations are being installed in schools, bus stations, health care centres and other public places. These are made up of just two buckets, one containing a solution of chlorine and water, and a second to collect the wastewater. In some areas, dots are being painted on the ground for people to stand on, so that they maintain physical distancing while lining up to use the handwashing stations.

Innovative technology

PATH, an NGO that uses innovative technology to improve health, has partnered up with the outdoor equipment manufacturer MSR’s Global Health wing to produce a Community Chlorine Maker . Using just water, salt and a power source, such as a car battery, the device can produce enough chlorine to treat 200 litres of water in a matter of minutes.

This was developed before the pandemic to address this challenge more generally, but the device is now needed more than ever, and 13 countries across the world have put in requests to PATH for the devices. People all over the world are also coming up with their own solutions, such as the solar-powered hands-free handwashing station developed by students in Uganda.

Public awareness

As well as increasing access to soap and water, there is a need for public awareness campaigns to make sure people use them. Globally, only 1 in 5 people wash their hands after going to the toilet .

Governments and health organisations are working with community leaders, religious leaders and celebrities to promote the importance of regular and thorough handwashing. A video of policemen doing a “handwashing dance” in the Indian state of Kerala has gone viral, and a Nigerian musician, Cobhams Asuquo, has released a song called " We go win (corona) ".

What about after the pandemic?

While all these efforts to promote handwashing are happening in the name of COVID-19, they will also have an impact on the spread of many other deadly diseases. When this pandemic is over, maintaining the progress made could save countless lives every year from diseases like cholera, typhoid and pneumonia.

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3 Reasons Why Handwashing Should Matter to You

Most of us are familiar with the parental-like voice in the back of our minds that helps guide our decision-making—asking us questions like, “Have you called your grandmother lately?” For many that voice serves as a gentle, yet constant reminder to wash our hands.

Handwashing with soap and water is one of the most important steps you can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to loved ones. Many diseases are spread by not cleaning your hands properly after touching contaminated objects or surfaces. And although not all germs are bad, illness can occur when harmful germs enter our bodies through the eyes, nose, and mouth. That’s why it is critical to wash hands at key times , such as after a flood or during a flu pandemic , when germs can be passed from person to person and make others sick.

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to reduce the number of germs on them, however during a disaster clean, running water may not be available. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs.

• Handwashing can keep children healthy and in school. Handwashing education can reduce the number of young children who get sick and help prevent school absenteeism.
• Handwashing can help prevent illness . Getting a yearly flu vaccine is the most important action you can take to protect yourself from flu. Besides getting a flu vaccine, CDC recommends everyday preventive actions including frequent handwashing with soap and water.
• Wet your hands with clean, running water, turn off the tap, and apply soap
• Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap
• Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice
• Rinse your hands well under clean, running water
• Dry your hands using a clean towel or air-dry them

Promote Handwashing in Your Community

Global Handwashing Day is celebrated annually on October 15 to promote handwashing with soap as an easy and affordable way to prevent disease in communities around the world. This year’s theme, “Clean Hands—A Recipe for Health,” calls attention to the importance of handwashing at key times, such as before eating or feeding others, and before, during, and after preparing food.

Learn how you can get involved and promote handwashing at home, your child’s school or daycare, and your local community:

• Watch a CDC expert give a  handwashing demonstration on how to properly wash hands with soap and water.
• Join CDC’s handwashing social media campaign . Post a photo of yourself or others showing your clean hands. Use the hashtags #HandwashingHeroes and #PrepYourHealth.
• Promote on social media . Create your own messages or share some our sample social media messages . Use the #GlobalHandwashingDay hashtag.
• Share health promotion resources . CDC has developed a variety of shareable promotion materials , including web-ready buttons , animated images, and fact sheets on handwashing.
• Order free posters . Display handwashing posters in highly visible areas, such as schools, work areas, and restrooms.
• Use web content syndication . Add the latest content from CDC’s Handwashing website to your organization’s website. The content is automatically updated when CDC updates it, so your content will always be accurate and current.

15 comments on “3 Reasons Why Handwashing Should Matter to You”

Comments listed below are posted by individuals not associated with CDC, unless otherwise stated. These comments do not represent the official views of CDC, and CDC does not guarantee that any information posted by individuals on this site is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information. Read more about our comment policy » .

What about the counter-argument to the over-obsession with hand washing and the endless application of antibacterial lotions that are everywhere today that weren’t, say, 20 to 30 years ago? What about the antibodies that can’t be developed to fight certain diseases because we don’t allow our bodies to create them?

I grew up in the 1980s and played on the ball fields every day in the summer, and sure we (usually) washed our hands before eating, but it wasn’t life or death (literally) like the message seems to be today. Plus, it seems kids are getting sicker much easier these days and I can’t help but think it’s partially because society’s new obsession with keeping them too clean is contradictory to keeping them healthy.

Thanks for your inquiry! Research shows that regular handwashing, particularly before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick and prevent the spread of germs to others. CDC’s guidance on handwashing refers to washing hands with plain (non-‘antibacterial’) soap and water. In fact, the FDA recently issued a final order banning the use of so-called antibacterial products in soaps because they were no more effective than ‘plain’ soap and ran the risk of further antimicrobial resistance concerns.

From a nurse’s perspective, there are few things as important as washing our hands. It is one of the most important steps we can take to protect our patients, our families, and ourselves. As a healthcare worker it is vital that we prevent the spread of germs and illness from one patient to the next. Failure to do so could result in increasing illness and even death for the patients we care for. Proper hand washing can also reduce the amount of antibiotics used to treat infections, decreasing the amount of antibiotic resistance we see in healthcare. Hand washing is something that can become routine if we start teaching it at a young age. Much like brushing teeth or wiping properly, our children need to be shown proper hand hygiene and it should be enforced until it becomes part of daily life.

Hand washing is the best protection again illnesses in the community. Proper hand washing can prevent the spread of germs, especially those related to respiratory and GI illnesses. As we go throughout our day, germs build up and is spread by whatever we touched. Washing hands after performing any task that can cause contamination can stop the spread of infection. Germs are also picked up and can enter our body through the rubbing of our eyes , putting fingers in mouth and via food consumption. From a nurse’s perspective, hand washing is one of the most important methods to breaking the mode of transmission. Educating the public on when and why to wash their hands can decrease the transference of illnesses within the community and increase population awareness. I like the demonstration of proper hand washing video as a visual cue for the next time.

From a nurse’s perspective hand washing is the most substantial way to protect our patients and ourselves form illnesses. One thing we are taught as nurses is the use of hand sanitizer is only effective if the hand in not visibly soiled. I always wonder if schools are teaching our children the appropriate ways to use hand sanitizers? I have two smaller children myself, and more often than not their hands are filthy after school. So are they washing hands, if they are it certainly seems like it’s not properly? A recent study in the journal Pediatrics looked at nearly 1,000 daycare pre-school students who were divided into three groups. One group wash hands normally, group 2 was instructed on how to properly wash with liquid hand soap, and the third group used liquid hand sanitizer. Over an eight-month period, the group of children that used the hand sanitizers had 23 percent fewer respiratory infections. Although there is more research to be done, this study is a start to the discussion that already exists regarding the effectiveness of hand sanitizer. It seems that at least for the very young children the best intervention is to continue to use hand sanitizer, simply due to the fact that hand hand washing by this group has proven to be inadequate alone.

Many illnesses begin when hands become contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses. Hand hygiene is the most important effective method to prevent illness in the community. Working in the health care field, it is very essential to protect and prevent the spread of germs from one patient to the next. Often infections that patient received in the healthcare facilities could be life threating and could create more complication in the healing process. Education plays a vital role. Educating patients, family members, and visitors increase the perception and importance of washing hands and can reduce the spread of illness within our community.

From a nurse’s perspective, handwashing is an essential infection control procedure performed daily and is vital to reducing the spread of preventable infectious germs. Generally, the patients I take care of are not well and are immune-compromised with a higher risk for susceptibility to bacteria that can spread through poor hand hygiene. While this is not the only method to prevent the spread of infection, it is the first line of defense and simple procedure to carry out to ensure patient, staff, and visitor safety. As a nurse, if I have a patient on Contact Isolation Precautions, I am asked from family and friends visiting if they should wear personal protective equipment. After educating them about the reasons for PPE and how germs can spread and affect others, there is no hesitation in suiting up. Poor hand hygiene is, without a doubt, the most significant contributor to facility acquired infections. Some infections that can spread by not washing hands include gastroenteritis, respiratory illnesses, MRSA, or E-coli. The spread of these infectious germs and bacteria, when appropriate handwashing technique is performed, is disrupted. Since becoming a nurse, I have become acutely aware of how easily viruses and bacteria can spread, from a simple sneeze or cough, or by touching a shopping cart or surface area. The information provided is important because by using soap and water, they remove harmful germs and bacteria from dirty hands, and help maintain good health every day.

Do soaps containing abrasives (pumice) do a better job than soaps without?

As a health educator working at a local (county) health department, I taught 148 Pre Kindergarten through second grade classes with over 3000 students why handwashing is important and the proper handwashing procedure. The course we use was developed several years ago as a 15 minute “do it this way” lecture and has evolved over time to a highly interactive 45 minute lesson that covers everything from what and where germs are to correctly washing their hands. Keeping that aged children active is mandatory in keeping their attention. The class ends with a homework assignment of having the kids teach their parents the correct way to wash their hands.

When I was first tasked with giving this lesson, I was shocked to hear kids saying they, or worse their parents, “never wash their hands.” Over the years, that shock has turned more to amazement and prompts me to work harder to impress how important hand washing is.

I believe that now, with the Covid-19 pandemic infecting millions worldwide, handwashing will again become a “hot topic” within the schools. I am looking forward to getting slammed this fall with requests for Handwashing 101 lessons. Hopefully lessons taught will be lessons learned and the teachers and parents will reinforce the class within their classrooms and at home.

As a Public Health student, I am convinced that hand washing is one of the main defenses against the rush of germs, diseases and super bugs in our society today. Germs enter our bodies through our eyes, mouths and noses and they usually get there by touching a contaminated surface such as a toilet, dirty handrail, doorknob, or anything we touch that can be covered with unseen germs. Once the germs are on our hands and we touch our face, the germs are in our body, possibly making us sick. Some of these germs can kill us! Hand washing is simple, it doesn’t take much time (only 20 seconds) and is certainly more affordable than visiting the doctor after we are sick. Hand washing can prevent us from getting sick less often, from missing school classes, and from missing days off work due to illness. It just makes sense to wash your hands!

Hand washing is the best protection again illnesses.

Wash your hands over and over again with soap and water towards 25 sec properly, specially if you are in a public place so don’t touch your hands or after efflux your nose, coughing or sneezing. It is very important for us……

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Let us share this blog. It is also possible to avoid infecting covid19 by washing hands and always sanitising.

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Essay on Hand Washing

Students are often asked to write an essay on Hand Washing in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Hand Washing

Introduction to hand washing.

Hand washing is a basic habit everyone should practice. It is the act of cleaning our hands with water and soap. This simple action helps us stay clean and healthy. It’s one of the best ways to stop germs from spreading.

Why Hand Washing is Important

Hand washing is important because it helps to remove germs. Germs can cause diseases like colds, flu, and food poisoning. By washing hands, we can stop germs from spreading to others and make our surroundings healthier.

When to Wash Hands

We should wash our hands often, especially before eating, after using the toilet, and after touching dirty things. Also, we should wash our hands after coughing or sneezing to prevent spreading germs to others.

How to Wash Hands Properly

To wash hands properly, use clean water and soap. Rub your hands together for at least 20 seconds. Don’t forget to clean between your fingers, under your nails, and your wrists. Then, rinse and dry your hands well.

Hand washing is a simple and effective way to stay healthy. It helps us to prevent diseases and keep our surroundings clean. So, make it a habit to wash your hands regularly.

250 Words Essay on Hand Washing

What is hand washing.

Hand washing is a simple act we do every day. It involves cleaning your hands with soap and water. This act is important because it helps us stay healthy. It removes dirt, germs, and harmful things from our hands.

Why is Hand Washing Important?

Hand washing is very important to our health. When we touch things, our hands pick up germs. These germs can make us sick if they enter our body. By washing our hands, we can remove these germs. This helps to stop diseases from spreading. It’s especially important before eating, after using the toilet, and after touching dirty things.

How to Wash Hands Properly?

To wash your hands properly, you need soap and clean water. First, wet your hands with water. Then apply soap. Rub your hands together for at least 20 seconds. Make sure to clean all parts of your hands: the palms, the back of the hands, between the fingers, and under the nails. After that, rinse your hands with water. Dry them with a clean towel or air dry them.

Benefits of Hand Washing

Hand washing has many benefits. It keeps us healthy by removing germs from our hands. It also stops germs from spreading to others. This can help stop diseases from spreading in our community. Hand washing also makes our hands clean and fresh.

In conclusion, hand washing is a simple act that has big benefits. It keeps us healthy and helps stop the spread of diseases. So, always remember to wash your hands properly and regularly.

500 Words Essay on Hand Washing

Hand washing, also called hand hygiene, is a simple act of cleaning your hands with soap and water. This act is very important. It helps to remove dirt, germs, and other harmful substances from our hands.

Hand washing is very important for many reasons. First, it helps to keep us healthy. Germs on our hands can make us sick if they enter our bodies. By washing our hands, we can remove these germs and prevent illnesses.

Second, hand washing also helps to protect others. When we touch things, we can leave germs behind. If someone else touches these things, they can pick up the germs and get sick. By washing our hands, we can stop the spread of germs.

When Should We Wash Our Hands?

We should wash our hands many times throughout the day. Here are some key times to wash your hands:

1. Before and after eating 2. After using the bathroom 3. After sneezing, coughing, or blowing your nose 4. After touching animals or animal waste 5. After touching garbage 6. Before and after caring for someone who is sick 7. Before and after treating a cut or wound

Proper hand washing involves several steps. Here is a simple guide:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water. 2. Apply soap and rub your hands together to make a lather. 3. Scrub all parts of your hands, including the backs, between your fingers, and under your nails. 4. Continue scrubbing for at least 20 seconds. You can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice to time this. 5. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water. 6. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

What if Soap and Water are Not Available?

Sometimes, soap and water may not be available. In such cases, you can use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. But remember, hand sanitizers do not remove all types of germs, and they are not as effective when hands are visibly dirty or greasy. So, washing hands with soap and water is always the best choice when possible.

Hand washing is a simple and effective way to keep ourselves and others healthy. It helps to stop the spread of germs and prevent illnesses. So, let’s make hand washing a regular habit and encourage others to do the same. Remember, clean hands save lives!

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Halloween Party
• Essay on Hanuman Jayanti
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Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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Why Is Washing Your Hands So Important, Anyway?

A dive into the science behind why hand-washing and alcohol-based hand sanitizer work so well

Katherine J. Wu

Correspondent

Avoid close contact with sick patients. Stay home if you’re feeling unwell. Scrub your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and for goodness’ sake, stop touching your face.

By now, you’ve probably heard or seen the advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for staving off COVID-19 , the viral epidemic ricocheting across the globe. Most cases of the disease are mild, triggering cold-like symptoms including fever, fatigue, dry cough and shortness of breath. The death rate appears to be low—about two or three percent, perhaps much less. But the virus responsible, called SARS-CoV-2, is a fearsomely fast spreader, hopping from person to person through the droplets produced by sneezes and coughs. Since COVID-19 was first detected in China’s Hubei province in December 2019, nearly 100,000 confirmed cases have been reported worldwide, with many more to come.

To curb the virus’ spread, experts stress the importance of hand hygiene: keeping your hands clean by regularly lathering up with soap and water, or, as a solid second choice, thoroughly rubbing them down with an alcohol-based sanitizer. That might sound like simple, even inconsequential advice. But such commonplace practices can be surprisingly powerful weapons in the war against infectious disease.

“[Washing your hands] is one of the most important ways to interrupt transmission of viruses or other pathogens,” says Sallie Permar , a physician and infectious disease researcher at Duke University. “It can have a major impact on an outbreak.”

How to Destroy a Virus

In the strictest sense of the word, viruses aren’t technically alive . Unlike most other microbes, which can grow and reproduce on their own, viruses must invade a host such as a human cell to manufacture more of themselves. Without a living organism to hijack, viruses can’t cause illness. Yet viral particles are hardy enough to remain active for a while outside of the host, with some staying infectious for hours, days or weeks. For this reason, viruses can easily spread unnoticed, especially when infected individuals don’t always exhibit symptoms—as appears to be the case with COVID-19.

Researchers are still nailing down the details of exactly how SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted and how resilient it is outside the body. Because the virus seems to hang out in mucus and other airway fluids, it almost certainly spreads when infected individuals cough or sneeze. Released into the air, infectious droplets can land on another person or a frequently touched surface like a doorknob, shopping cart or subway seat. The virus can also transfer through handshakes after someone carrying the virus sneezes or coughs into their hand.

After that, it’s a short trip for the virus from hand to head. Researchers estimate that, on average, humans touch their faces upwards of 20 times an hour , with about 44 percent of these encounters involving eyes, mouths and noses—some of the quickest entry points into the body’s interior.

Breaking this chain of transmission can help stem the spread of disease, says Chidiebere Akusobi , an infectious disease researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Sneezing or coughing into your elbow can keep mucus off your mitts; noticing when your hand drifts towards your face can help you reduce the habit .

All this public-health-minded advice boils down to a game of keep away. To actually infect a person, viruses must first get inside the body, where they can infect living cells—so if one lands on your hands, the best next move is to remove or destroy it.

The Science Behind Hand-Washing

The most important step to curbing infection may be hand-washing, especially before eating food, after using the bathroom and after caring for someone with symptoms. “It’s simply the best method to limit transmission,” says Kellie Jurado , a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “You can prevent yourself from being infected as well as transmitting to others.”

According to the CDC , you should wet your hands—front and back—with clean, running water; lather up with soap, paying mind to the easily-forgotten spaces between your fingers and beneath your nails; scrub for at least 20 seconds; then rinse and dry. (Pro tip: If counting bores you or you’re sick of the birthday song, try the chorus of these popular songs to keep track.)

Done properly, this process accomplishes several virus-taming tasks. First, the potent trifecta of lathering, scrubbing and rinsing “physically removes pathogens from your skin,” says Shirlee Wohl , a virologist and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.

In many ways, soap molecules are ideal for the task at hand. Soap can incapacitate SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses that have an outer coating called an envelope, which helps the pathogens latch onto and invade new cells. Viral envelopes and soap molecules both contain fatty substances that tend to interact with each other when placed in close proximity, breaking up the envelopes and incapacitating the pathogen. “Basically, the viruses become unable to infect a human cell,” Permar says.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers also target these vulnerable viral envelopes, but in a slightly different way. While soap physically dismantles the envelope using brute force, alcohol changes the envelope’s chemical properties , making it less stable and more permeable to the outside world, says Benhur Lee , a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. (Note that “alcohol” here means a chemical like ethanol or isopropyl alcohol—not a beverage like vodka, which contains only some ethanol.)

Alcohol also can penetrate deep into the pathogen’s interior, wreaking havoc on proteins throughout the virus. (Importantly, not all viruses come with outer envelopes. Those that don’t, like the viruses that cause HPV and polio, won’t be susceptible to soap, and to some extent alcohol, in the same way.)

Hand sanitizers made without alcohol—like some marketed as “baby-safe” or “natural”—won’t have the same effect. The CDC recommends searching for a product with at least 60 percent alcohol content—the minimum concentration found to be effective in past studies. ( Some water is necessary to unravel the pathogen’s proteins, so 100 percent alcohol isn’t a good option.)

As with hand-washing, timing matters with sanitizers. After squirting a dollop onto your palm, rub it all over your hands, front and back, until they’re completely dry—without wiping them off on a towel, which could keep the sanitizer from finishing its job, Jurado says.,

But hand sanitizers come with drawbacks. For most people, using these products is less intuitive than hand-washing, and the CDC notes that many people don’t follow the instructions for proper application . Hand sanitizers also don’t jettison microbes off skin like soap, which is formulated to lift oily schmutz off surfaces, Akusobi says.

“Soap emulsifies things like dirt really well,” he says. “When you have a dirty plate, you don’t want to use alcohol—that would help sterilize it, but not clean it.”

Similarly, anytime the grit is visible on your hands, don’t grab the hand sanitizer; only a full 20 seconds (or more) of scrubbing with soapy water will do. All told, hand sanitizer “should not be considered a replacement for soap and water,” Lee says. “If I have access to soap and water, I will use it.”

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Technically, it is possible to overdo it with both hand-washing and hand sanitizing, Akusobi says. “If your skin is chronically dry and cracking, that’s no good. You could be exposing yourself to other infections,” he says. But “it would take a lot to get to that point.”

In recent weeks, hand sanitizers have been flying off the shelves , leading to shortages and even prompting some retailers to ration their supplies . Some people have begun brewing up hand sanitizers at home based on online recipes .

Many caution against this DIY approach, as the end products can’t be quality controlled for effectiveness, uniformity or safety, says Eric Rubin , an infectious disease researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health. “On average, one would imagine that [a homemade sanitizer] would not work as well, so it would be a mistake to rely on it,” he says.

As more information on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 emerges, experts stress the importance of awareness. Even as the news changes and evolves, people’s vigilance shouldn’t.

“Do the small things you need to do to physically and mentally prepare for what’s next,” Wohl says. “But don’t panic. That never helps anybody.”

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Katherine J. Wu | | READ MORE

Katherine J. Wu is a Boston-based science journalist and Story Collider senior producer whose work has appeared in National Geographic , Undark magazine, Popular Science and more. She holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunobiology from Harvard University, and was Smithsonian magazine's 2018 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Handwashing - Why it's important

Actions for this page.

• Thorough handwashing with soap and water can protect you and others from a range of infectious diseases.
• Liquid soap is better than bar soap, especially at work.
• Washing hands with soap and water is better than using alcohol-based hand sanitisers.
• Dry your hands thoroughly.

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Handwashing helps prevent spread of infectious diseases, when to wash your hands, how to wash your hands properly, use running water, soap is important, liquid soap is best, no advantage to using antibacterial soap, soap and water is better than hand sanitiser, take care of your hands, teach hand hygiene to children, where to get help.

A number of infectious diseases can be spread from one person to another by contaminated hands.

These diseases include gastrointestinal infections , such as salmonellosis , and respiratory infections, such as influenza , colds and coronavirus (COVID-19) .

Washing your hands properly with soap and water can help prevent the spread of the germs (like bacteria and viruses) that cause these diseases.

Some forms of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections can cause serious complications, especially for young children, the elderly, or those with a weakened immune system.

You should wash your hands thoroughly:

• after using the toilet
• after changing nappies
• before, during and after preparing food
• between handling raw and cooked or ready-to-eat food
• before eating
• after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
• after using a tissue or handkerchief
• before and after attending to sick children or other family members
• after smoking
• after handling rubbish or working in the garden
• after handling animals
• when you get home, arrive at other people’s homes, at venues or at work.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

If you feel a cough or sneeze is coming on, make sure to cough or sneeze into a tissue and then throw it away and wash your hands.

If you do not have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow. It’s a part of your body less likely to touch other surfaces and will help stop the spread of nasty germs.

To wash hands properly:

• Wet your hands with clean, running water, turn off the tap.
• Apply soap and lather well for 20 seconds (or longer if the dirt is ingrained).
• Rub hands together rapidly across all surfaces of your hands and wrists.
• Don’t forget the backs of your hands, your wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.
• If possible, remove rings and watches before you wash your hands, or ensure you move the rings to wash under them, as microorganisms can exist.
• Rinse well under running water and make sure all traces of soap are removed.
• Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.
• It is best to use paper towels (or single-use cloth towel).
• Dry under any rings, as they can be a source of future contamination if they remain moist.
• Hot air driers can be used.

At home, give each family member their own towel and wash the towels often.

Use running water instead of a basin of standing water that could become contaminated through use.

Warm water may be better than cold for handwashing as soap lathers (soaps up) better with warm water. However, cold water and soap are still suitable.

Hot water can damage the skin’s natural oils. Over time, this can cause dermatitis .

Washing hands with soap and water will remove substantially more disease-causing organisms than washing hands with water alone.

For people who find that soap causes skin irritation, it is useful to note that soaps can have a different pH – they may be neutral, slightly alkaline or slightly acidic, and perfumes in soap may also cause irritation. Changing soap may help some people.

Generally, it is better to use liquid soap than bar soap, particularly at work. However, bar soap is better than no soap.

When following the handwashing steps outlined above, all soaps are equally effective at removing disease causing germs. Antibacterial soap is unnecessary and does not offer an advantage over regular soap.

Alcohol-based hand sanitisers are effective against some viruses (such as coronavirus), however they are not effective against gastroenteritis.

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to prevent gastroenteritis infection.

It is best to wash hands with soap and water. If unavailable, use alcohol-based hand sanitiser containing at least 60% alcohol.

Handwashing is only one part of hand hygiene. Looking after your skin generally is important, as your skin is your most effective barrier against infection.

After your hands have been dried thoroughly, you can help to look after your hands if you:

• Apply a water-based absorbent hand cream 3 to 4 times a day, or more frequently if your hands are constantly in water.
• Use gloves when washing dishes to protect your hands.
• Use gloves when gardening to prevent a build-up of ingrained soil or scratches.
• Consult a doctor if a skin irritation develops or continues.

The creation of healthy habits during childhood is important to ensure lifelong healthy decisions and actions.

Get kids involved with ‘Soapy Hero’ training to help keep their classmates, family and friends healthy and stop the spread of dangerous infectious diseases with hand hygiene.

Watch this video about hand hygiene.

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Why hand-washing is an essential habit—even past the pandemic

While some pandemic-era habits will likely fade as more people get vaccinated, routine hand-washing is one key behavior that we should hold on to, Jane Brody writes for the New York Times .

The 6 biggest Covid-related myths we've seen, busted

Why hand-washing is so important

To help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, CDC recommends that—in addition to other precautions—you should  routinely wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Specifically, CDC recommends washing your hands often and especially after certain activities that could lead to the spread of germs, such as touching your face, using the restroom, handling a mask, or coughing or sneezing.

Soap and water help break down the fat and protein layer around the coronavirus, which then allows the virus to be washed away. If soap and water are not available, you can use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol instead.

America's history of poor hand hygiene

Before the pandemic, Brody writes, most people didn't follow consistent hand-washing habits.

For instance, a 2012 survey of 1,000 American adults found that only 71% of people washed their hands "regularly," while more than half had either seen someone leave a restroom without washing their hands or had not washed their hands after being on public transportation. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they did not wash their hands after sneezing, coughing, or blowing their noses.

Even health care workers were not always diligent with their hand-washing habits, Brody writes. In one 2020 study , for instance, the authors said that, "as nurses, we are aware that hand-washing has not always been taken as seriously as it should, with compliance and adherence in clinical settings far from optimal over time." In fact, only 40% of nurses complied with hand-hygiene guidelines before the pandemic, according to multiple reports from different countries.

The authors encouraged everyone—medical professionals and non-medical populations—to continue washing their hands "once the pandemic is over."

However, although people's hand-washing habits improved during the early months of the pandemic, many people have not kept up the habit consistently over time. A study published in April in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzed hand hygiene compliance at the University of Chicago Medical Center and found that while compliance peaked at 92.8% on March 29, 2020—near the start of the pandemic—it had dropped to 51.5% by August 15, 2020, just a few months later.

Additionally, a survey from Bradley Corporation , a commercial bathroom fixture company that frequently conducts surveys on hand-washing habits in the United States, found that in January only 57% of Americans said they washed their hands at least six times a day, down from 78% in April 2020.

How to wash your hands properly

The coronavirus, including the highly contagious delta variant , continues to spread, and people who remain unvaccinated are at an especially high risk of being infected. Protective measures, such as mask wearing, social distancing, and hand-washing, are all important in helping prevent the spread of the virus, according to public health authorities.

To wash your hands properly in everyday situations, CDC recommends following these steps:

• Wet your hands with clean running water (warm or cold) and apply plain soap;
• Lather up your hands and then rub them together, making sure to get between your fingers;
• Scrub for at least 20 seconds, counting or humming the "Happy Birthday" song twice to time yourself; and
• Rinse your hands before drying them on a clean towel or allowing them to air dry. (Brody, New York Times , 7/12)

Get the facts

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions circulating about the progress of the pandemic and the vaccine rollout—and these can have very real implications for the United States' recovery.

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Posted on July 19, 2021

Updated on March 20, 2023

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Prevent the spread of COVID-19 by washing your hands often

Washing your hands helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.

True. Handwashing is one of many important things you can do to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases.

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Why it is important to wash your hands often

H and washing is part of our regular life. It is the simplest and cheapest measure to avoid many diseases such as flu, diarrhea, conjunctivitis. According to the World Health Organisation, proper and timely hand washing reduces the risk of contracting various infections by 40%. This is a percentage that simply cannot be ignored.

From the moment we wake up, we use our hands for all kinds of activities: picking up objects, greeting people and taking food. When we sneeze or cough, we press our hands to our mouths. When we are about to scratch our eyes, they are there again. When we run the best betting site in Nigeria, we touch the phone or PC keyboard.

In fact, our hands are constantly exposed to all kinds of germs such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. This creates the risk of transmitting diseases both to the person themselves and to others with whom they live, whether at home, school, on the street or at work.

Imagine a classroom in which a child has the flu. When he coughs, he puts his hand to his mouth but does not wash his hands afterwards. This child then engages in some school activity, such as drawing. If another child picks up one of the coloured pencils that a classmate has just used and touches his or her eye, he or she is also at high risk of infection.

Although the risk of infection is greater in children, adults are also susceptible to these types of infections. Imagine a situation at work: one sick colleague uses an internal phone and then another colleague uses the same phone. That’s it, that’s enough to transmit a lot of infections.

The danger is that often a person does not even show symptoms of a viral or bacterial infection yet, but can already be contagious. Therefore, you should not only take precautions when someone around you is obviously ill. And the more often you wash your hands, the less risk of infection you have.

The frequency will depend on the occurrence of certain situations. You need to perform this process

Often people don’t realize it, but there is a proper way to wash your hands. In our daily lives, especially when we are away from home, such as when we use the toilet in a shopping center, we can simply spill some water on our hands. The problem is that water alone doesn’t kill germs. You should definitely use soap and water.

Also, the duration of washing should last between 30 seconds and 1 minute. Here’s how the hand washing procedure itself should go:

Liquid soap is more effective than lump soap, but it does not have to be a bactericidal soap.

If you’re not at home and you don’t have the opportunity to wash your hands thoroughly, you can use an alcohol gel if it contains at least 60 per cent alcohol. Alcohol gel is not harmful to your hands and has the ability to kill germs if applied not only to the palm area, but also to the nail area, between the fingers and on the wrists. It is also very practical as you don’t need to wash your hands after using the gel, and you can carry it in your bag and use it whenever you want.

So if you want to protect yourself and your family, you need to develop the habit of washing your hands often and properly! Teach your children from an early age to perform this simple action, especially after using the toilet and before eating. Thanks to this, you and your family will get sick much less often.

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