Strong message on World Hand Hygiene Day is: Wash your hands
Hand washing has, as a result of the coronavirus, never been more in vogue than it is right now.
The World Hand Hygiene Day commemoration on 5 May coincided with the emphasis on hand washing as mitigating measures against the coronavirus which has killed thousands globally.
The scourge, which has no cure, has killed over 130 people in South Africa and infected more than 7 000 nationwide and is still spreading. Hand washing has, as a result, never been more in vogue than it is right now, according to a national poll conducted prior to the virus outbreak by Pharma Dynamics, a prevention-minded pharmaceutical company.
In a statement, the company’s Nicole Jennings said the outbreak has had a profound effect on how society now perceives hand washing, a practice that the World Health Organisation and others have for decades, tried unsuccessfully to instil.
“According to the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, only 19 per cent of people wash their hands after going to a bathroom. “This has resulted in more than 1.6 million children under the age of five dying annually from diarrhoea and pneumonia mostly in poor countries. Death which could have been prevented through proper hand washing.”
Jennings said even celebrities have been prompted by the virus to challenge one another and musicians to write songs about it. This, she said, is in addition to the local media which promotes the importance of hand washing in a country where only six out 10 adults surveyed washed their hands regularly, despite the medical practice emphasising that it should be made a habit.
She credited the virus for expediting government and the private sectors’ extraordinary delivery of water tanks and health products to residents in rural areas and townships to help enhance the habit of hand washing.
“We now know that regular hand washing with soap is effective against the scourge, which she said, is an ‘enveloped virus’ with a fatty layer to help it to survive. “Hand washing, lathering, scrubbing and rinsing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds removes the virus from the skin by breaking up the protective envelope and disabling it. Also, hand washing reduces risks of contracting other respiratory illnesses like colds and flu by up to 21 per cent and gastrointestinal illnesses by 23 to 40 per cent.”
Jennings urged government and partners not to relent with the hand hygiene campaign and water supply interventions as millions of poor people still don’t have access to clean water and proper sanitation.
“Without running water, soap or hand sanitisers, infection rates among them will likely soar.”
She called on better-off citizens to also donate the hand sanitisers or soap to poor communities, individuals with compromised immune systems, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
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