Posted on 05/10/2022

Hand Care and Hygiene: Why, When, and How

It’s easy to overlook the importance of hand hygiene. After all, hands are very busy: they touch everything from keyboards to door handles and pens. But even if you wash your hands frequently, it’s still important to take care of them. That’s because hand hygiene is an important part of infection control— it reduces the risk of getting sick or spreading germs at work, home, or school.

Why You Need Proper Hand Care and Hygiene 

Your hands are the most important part of your body. Without them, you can’t eat, write, or perform many tasks that are crucial to day-to-day living. Hands also have more surface area than other parts of the body, which means that they’re more likely to come into contact with germs and dirt. As a result, they’re also one of the first places people will try to touch when they want to infect someone else with a disease—and it’s not uncommon for people to use their hands when hugging or kissing others as well.

Therefore, it’s important to take care of your hands so that they don’t become infected or infested with bacteria like staphylococcus (staph). Hand care and hygiene are an important part of personal hygiene and infection control. It’s not just about cleanliness, it’s about reducing the risk of cross-contamination. So if you have cuts or sores on your hands, do not touch someone else’s skin or mucous membranes (the lining of the nose, mouth, throat and genital area) with those areas of your hands. You should wash them regularly and apply moisturizer daily—especially in dry environments such as winter months—in order to prevent dry skin and cracked nails from occurring.

When Do You Need To Care For Your Hands?

  • After touching your face. Because your hands are in contact with your mouth, nose and eyes so frequently, it’s good to wash them after touching any of these areas to avoid transferring germs from one place to another.
  • After using the bathroom. This is an obvious one — no one wants to be washing away pee or poop on their hands all day long! Cleaning up after going number two is also important because bacteria can linger in the toilet bowl water and get transferred onto your hands as they flush away what was once inside you (if you’re uncomfortable with this thought alone, try not to think about it).
  • After coughing or sneezing. These activities produce droplets that contain millions of bacteria travelling through the air at speeds over 100 mph—make sure your hands are clean before doing anything else!
  • After touching animals. This is a big one, especially if you have pets at home or visit the zoo or petting zoo on a regular basis. You never know what kind of germs are on their fur and may end up getting them all over your hands if you’re not careful.
  • After touching dirty objects. This includes things like door handles, keyboards and phones — even if they look clean to the naked eye, germs can still be lurking in these places!

How Often Do I Need To Care For My Hands?

If you are like most people, you touch your face every day. You might also touch your eyes, mouth and nose as well as parts of your body such as the neck or armpits. After doing so, it is important to wash your hands with soap and water in order to prevent cross-contamination from these places onto surfaces that could potentially be contaminated by food particles or other contaminants.

While you may think that you can’t possibly spread illness by touching your face, the truth is that there is a lot of bacteria on our skin, especially in those places where we have hair and oil glands. This means that if someone touches their face after they touch something contaminated with bacteria – such as raw chicken or other foods – they are likely to transfer this bacteria onto their hands. Generally, the average person will need to wash their hands several times within a day since they will be exposed to some type of contaminant. 

How Do I Take Care Of My Hands?

Examples of effective hand washing include:

  • Washing them with soap and water. This is one of the best ways to prevent germs from spreading. Be sure to wash your hands before eating or preparing food, after using the bathroom and changing a diaper, after touching animals, and after handling garbage or cleaning up spills.
  • Using a hand sanitizer if you don’t have access to soap and water. These are good for uses like touching doors or other surfaces in public places where there might not be proper hand-washing facilities nearby. Hand sanitizers are great hand care products but they should not replace regular hand washing with soap and water!

Hand hygiene is an important part of infection control, and the best way to ensure that your hands stay clean is by washing them with soap and water. If you have cuts or open sores on your hands, try using an antibacterial hand sanitizer instead. Stay healthy!

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