Clean Hands Save Lives

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Recommended: Importance of hand hygiene in healthcare

“The greatest cheap medical fix in all of history: the bar of soap” (Zugar). Soap has turned the commercial industry upside down by allowing the development of any and every kind of hand hygiene product to be created in order to soothe a person’s fear. Almost any kind of product imaginable to man is being made to keep germs on their toes. Ignaz Semmelweis is often credited to having been the first physician to enforce the germ theory of strengthening soap. In “1846” he encouraged hospitals to put to use a stronger form of soap that had an “antiseptic agent” in it consisting of a chloride solution (CDC 1). Today, however, handwashing is becoming one of the fastest growing medical concerns, due to the fact that hand hygiene can actually save a life. According to Nancy L. Pontius, a special correspondent writer for America.gov, “Every year, diarrhea and pneumonia kill more than 3.5 million children under age 5 worldwide. Many of them could have been saved by the simple act of washing hands” (United States. Dept. of State. Bur. of International Information Programs). Using effective hand hygiene, which hinders the spread of germs, is vital to the prevention of disease and preservation of life.

Handwashing offers many beneficial effects. One such benefit is that it helps prevent disease. According to the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, illnesses such as “influenza, streptococcus, syncytial virus, and the common cold can be avoided after coughing, sneezing, and shaking hands.” Often by not washing one’s hands, illnesses such as these are passed around unconsciously because little thought is put into what germs could be residing on a person’s hand. This person’s hand could be the hand that fixed lunch for a group of individuals at ...

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...ing, Public Health Laboratory Service, Bary Cookson, Gary French, Dinah Gould, Elizabeth Jenner, J McCulloch, Anne Palleh, M Schweigan, Geoffrey Schott, and Jennie Wilson. “Hand washing: a modest measure- with big effects.” British Medical Journal 318.7185 (1999): 686. PubMed. Web. 12 Oct. 2011.

United States. Dept. of State. Bur. of International Information Programs. 2008 Global Handwashing Day Promotes Hygiene Education by Nancy L. Pontius.1 Oct. 2008. Web. 11 Nov 2011.

“US needs hand with washroom etiquette (Survey of handwashing in public washrooms).” Medical Post 32.33 (1996): 6. LexisNexis. Web. 1 Nov 2011.

Wisconsin Division of Public Health. Dept. of Health Services. Handwashing. Sep. 2006. n.pag. Web. 12 Oct 2011.

Zugar, Abigail. “The Simplest Health Solutions? It’s complicated.” New York Times. New York Times, 26 Sep. 2011. n. pag. Web. 12 Oct 2011.

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