Why is Cleaning Hands Important? 

One of the easy routines that can help shield you and your loved ones from a variety of illnesses is washing your hands. During the course of the day at work, numerous germs are accumulated in our fingernails, nail beds, and between our fingers. Numerous diseases are caused by these germs because they multiply and are consumed. Contact with an infected person can result in the transmission of a variety of contagious illnesses, including as COVID-19 infections and respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. The proper use of soap and water for handwashing eliminates and destroys germs from our hands and stops the spread of germs from one person to another.

The germs and pathogens that cause sickness are eliminated from our hands by hand sanitizers. When we unintentionally touch our eyes, nose, or mouth with infected hands, the disease-causing bacteria can spread from infected individuals or from contacting the infected surface.

When should you wash or disinfect your hands?

You and your family may stay healthy by regularly washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer. 

The following situations are when it's advised to wash or disinfect your hands:

- Whenever you've come back from outdoors
- Prior to and following food preparation
- Both before and after consuming meals
- After using the restroom, before and after cleaning up after your child or changing diapers, before and after assisting the ill
- Following touching your face mask or eye shield
- Before coming into touch with your mouth, nose, or eyes
- After coming into contact with contaminated objects like shopping carts, tables, door handles, or technological equipment.
- Following a cough, sneeze, or nose blow
- Following contact with any animal or pet
- After dealing with garbage and waste

Benefits of maintaining good hand hygiene

Important benefits of hand hygiene include:

- It gets rid of and eliminates a lot of microorganisms on our hands, shielding us from a lot of infectious ailments like eye infections, infectious respiratory problems, and digestive conditions like diarrhoea.

- Numerous contagious diseases are prevented from spreading from one person to another by it.

- As drug dependence declines, it aids in reducing the likelihood of antibiotic resistance.

Teaching your child the advantages of handwashing and having them practise the technique when they are young develops the habit into a healthy one in maturity.
Let's recognise the value of hand hygiene on this World Hand Hygiene Day in order to promote health and ward off numerous infectious diseases that can be prevented.