PROPER
HYGIENE
An experiment reveals the amount of bacteria that flourishes on hands that are not cleaned thoroughly
Eveline Gan, eveline@mediacorp.com.sg
I WASH my hands frequently. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this, my husband sees it as a sign of
obsessive compulsive disorder. He can’t understand why I carry a
hand sanitiser in my bag, or why I insist that he washes his hands before feeding our daughter.
He thinks I’m paranoid. I think it’s just good hygiene.
Seeking to prove my point, I conducted an experiment (see The
Experiment box) with the help of the
Health Promotion Board (HPB) and a microbiologist. The mission: To find out how much germs my hands pick up throughout the day and whether
washing them makes a difference in reducing the amount.
My worries were well-founded: Without a proper washing, even clean-looking hands can brim with microscopic germs.
Our hands are never totally germ-free, said Dr Tan Ai Ling, a senior consultant microbiologist at
Singapore General Hospital’s (
SGH) department of pathology.
She explained that there are two types of
micro-organisms on our hands: While the resident flora is part of our skin, the transient flora is picked up from the environment.
“Most of the time, the micro-organisms are harmless. But if we pick up something that is pathogenic, which can cause infection in humans, we may fall ill,” Dr Tan said.
She added that the risk of illness also depends on factors such as our immunity and the amount of germs on our hands.
Common infectious germs include diarrhoea-causing
E Coli and salmonella, and viruses such as the influenza virus and
Norovirus, which causes
gastroenteritis.
ENTER GOOD OL’ SOAP AND WATER
Washing your hands regularly greatly reduces the risk of passing on the flu and other
infectious diseases that spread through human contact, said Mr Lam Pin Woon, CEO of HPB.
To help people protect themselves against airborne and droplet-borne diseases, HPB launched a
hand-washing campaign earlier this month called “Stop the Horror with Soap and Water”.
According to Mr Lam, cleaning your hands with soap and water for 15 seconds reduces germ count by 50 to 90 per cent. For a 99 per cent reduction in germs, wash for 30 seconds.
But simply lathering your hands isn’t good enough.
“You’ll also need to rub them vigorously. Friction is required to effectively remove bacteria on the skin,” said Dr Tan.
The HPB recommends an eight-step technique: Wet your hands under running water, apply soap and lather well. Scrub all surfaces in the following order - palm to palm, between the fingers, back of the hands, base of both thumbs, back of the fingers, fingernails and wrists.
Finally, rinse both hands and wipe them dry with a paper towel.
The experiment
The aim: To find out if washing my hands regularly with soap and water can effectively reduce the amount of germs on them.
The method: As I went about my day, I would press my fingers on specially designed plates provided by Dr Tan before and after washing my hands. Any bacteria would be transferred onto the plates.
I made the imprints before preparing breakfast for my daughter, and after visiting the office toilet and sneezing. I also did it after taking my daughter to the playground and before having dinner with my family in a crowded coffeeshop.
The next day, I sent the plates to SGH’s senior consultant microbiologist Dr Tan Ai Ling, who interpreted the results.
The conclusion: Depending on the environment I was in, I had picked up bacteria including several bacillus species and staphylococcus. I even picked up mould at the playground. I shudder to think of all the germs I would have unwittingly fed my toddler had I not washed my hands before preparing her breakfast and feeding her dinner.
According to Dr Tan, the results showed that the amount of bacteria was much reduced - by at least 50 per cent - by hand washing.
“The study showed that the transient flora, or micro-organisms picked up from the environment, was easily got rid of by proper hand washing with soap and water,” she said.
The next best thing after the sink
If you’re at a hawker centre and can’t find a sink in which to wash your hands, alcohol-based hand sanitisers or
wet wipes are the next best defence against germs.
According to Dr Tan, alcohol kills bacteria. But this method will only work if your hands are not covered by organic substances such as mucus or blood, as alcohol does not completely get rid of the germs that hide in these substances.
Not all alcohol-based sanitisers are equally effective, though.
Whether you’re using alcohol-based wipes or rubs, the alcohol concentration should be above 60 per cent for it to effectively kill germs, said Raffles’ Medical senior physician, Dr Wong Wei Mon.
From TODAY, Health – Tuesday, 16-Jun-2009
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Then, let RESERVE do its work for you!
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Communicable Disease Centre at Tan Tock Seng hospital in Singapore
