Washing hands & flu

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I'm washing my hands a lot - 20 seconds or the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice - but I have (probably stupid) questions.

The posters say "under running water" - but gets rid of the soap in one second. So how do I wash my hands for 20 seconds under running water?

Can you recommend a soap that will accomplish the necessary (*Kill* dem germs!) but not make my skin red and hurting? Is there a disgustingly indulgent yet high efficacious hand soap?

The soap isn't to kill germs. The soap is to clean the stuff off your hands that the germs are stuck to. It's ok if the germs are still alive when they are rinsed down the drain. A little hand sanitizer that doesn't get rinsed off after you wash your hands will kill whatever's left. But it's really not necessary.


I realize many soaps advertise how they kill germs. But that's just marketing. You don't need sterile hands. You need hands with no germy gunk stuck to them and ordinary soap will get rid of gunk and get the germs off your hands (even if they are still alive as they go towards the sewer).

Actually, the posters are wrong - the water is only to rinse (that is what we were taught, anyway). A little soap with some water in your hands first, then wash as if you were putting on lotion, getting in between your fingers, washing right up to your wrists - to get the gunk under your nails, you rub your fingertips in the palms of your hands, pushing the skin away from the nail gently (do not rub the fingernails on the skin, to prevent scratch injury). Do that for 20-30 seconds. The rinse water should be tepid, which will keep your skin from being damaged (really warm water will dry out/burn your skin, cold could damage it).

Use a paper towel to turn off the water taps once you are done - otherwise, if you have to touch it with bare hands, you have defeated the purpose of washing your hands. If coming out of a public washroom, probably a good idea to use a paper towel on the door handles as well.

When I was taught how to do the hand washing thing, we started out with a soap that had sparkles in it - if you got every sparkle, then your hands were clean. Not something you want to use every day, but it is a good trainer.

I would recommend something like "Dove" soap, or one of the Aveenos, to decrease the drying out of skin. Using a hand lotion occasionally to keep your hands from over drying and cracking is recommended.

Like grinningcat said:

I feel ridiculously stupid, but see that #7 up there?
Wash hands under running water. -
Do they really mean, *rinse* hands under running water?

Hand washing is a massive waste of time, the majority of infection cases are though airborne release,
ie. sneezing and coughing, washing hands is always a good idea but only to prevent foodborne illness.

Handwashing can still protect you against airbornediseases so long as you aren't right near the person when they sneeze and cough. When somebody sneezes and coughs, they spew mucous droplets full of virus into the air. One way to catch the disease is by breathing those in. But those droplets of mucous settle rather quickly (they are mucous and fairly heavy). They settle on all sorts of things that people touch and the next person touches the (invisible) mucous droplet full of virus and then at some point brings their hand to their nose or mouth or transfers the virus to something that will go near their nose or mouth, transferring droplet and virus in.

So when you wash your hands to prevent airborne disease, what you are actually doing is washing off somebody else's virus-packed mucous droplets that stuck to your hand after you touched something they coughed near an hour ago when you weren't even in the room.

Bull.

I'm obsessive about washing my hands - If I've been out and about, it's the first thing I do when I get home. I haven't gotten sick in years.

I was talking about washing hands, but not to the exclusion of all else! But I hope don't have to follow you through a door.

I just wash my hands for about 10 seconds, and think nothing else of it.

That is remarkably inaccurate and misinformed.
I say this from having worked in a Hospital for several years.
Please be careful what you choose to post. I mean that in the nicest way possible.

It says rinse there too. I think it's to distinguish between washing with water and soap and washing with other materials, like liquid nitrogen and oxo cubes.

No need to be so rude writers block, claradoon, and gramirez, consider this, you are less likely to catch anything off a magazine in a doctors office then standing by a sick person
Look up the facts guys, try googling handwashing and H1N1 facts
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/24/ha ... index.html
And Writers Block, staff in most hospitals are notorious for NOT washing there hands when entering or leaving a patients room, your incredibly misinformed

That magazine article took pains to point out that while it won't do much to stop H1N1 because its' lipid membrane isn't stable on the hand, handwashing helps stop other respiratory illnesses because even though they are airborne, they are stable on the hand too. Your assertion that handwashing is ineffective against anything but foodborne illness is wrong.

Writersblock is not misinformed about the importance of handwashing in hospitals. Incidents of staff not washing their hands when entering/leaving patient rooms is due to forgetfullness, not because they don't need to.

I wasn't being rude- I was being matter-of-fact. There's a distinct difference.

Speculation at best. But you are welcome to believe as you wish. Good luck during this flu season.

I wash my hands at least twice.