India: Home hygiene article

    Home Hygiene
Tuesday April 25 2006 21:33 IST
Dr Geeta Mathai

Germs enter our houses all the time, from the road, our workplace and are brought inside by children when they return from school or play. Germs cling to our hands when we go to the toilet, or touch mud or dust. Pets, particularly cats, dogs and birds harbour mites, parasites, bacteria, viruses and fungi which cause diseases called zoonoses.

Sneezing and coughing ejects particles containing viruses and bacteria into the air. These eventually settle on walls, furniture and dust. As and when we touch these germ laden fomites and then our nose or eyes, we are liable to acquire the infection. Over 60% of the diseases in India are caused by infectious agents, and 90% of these can be prevented by hand washing. This is particularly true of respiratory illnesses like the common cold, diarrhoea, parasitic infestations, and even serious illness like jaundice, typhoid and meningitis. Timely and adequate hand washing is the only protective mechanism against avian flu at present.

Hand washing may seem simple, but to be effective the correct technique has to be followed. First wet your hands thoroughly and then apply soap. Rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces. This should be continued for 15 seconds. Next, rinse well and then dry your hands. The soap destroys the cell walls of micro organisms and the scrubbing dislodges and removes germs.

Washing hands after using the toilet may seem like elementary hygiene, yet a recent survey showed that only 67% of the Indians questioned actually washed their hands. The reasons cited were many: Scarcity of running water or any water at all, lack of a toilet so that the great outdoors (with no plumbing) had to be used! Surprisingly, in developed countries, with plentiful water, toilets and soap, 97 percent claimed to wash their hands when surveyed, but actually only 70 percent when objectively observed did so! Also, women were more likely to wash their hands than men. This became such a public health problem in Japan, that by law, failure to wash hands after a visit to the toilet is a punishable offence.

Placing so much emphasis on hand washing may seem frivolous but these findings have enormous medical implications. Doctors who fail to wash their hands between patients, and then go from one bed to other examining patients, are liable to transmit the infections from the first few patients to all the rest. This occurs in 5-15% of hospitalized patients. A few may have resistance, but young children, elderly, or immunocompromised (cancer and HIV infection) are likely to succumb. They come to hospital with one illness and eventually have to stay much longer as they develop complications of other nosocomal (hospital acquired) infections which are more severe.

In England and France, in the 1800s, before hand washing became the norm, many women died of sepsis in childbirth because doctors and nurses did not wash their hands between patients. The habit of washing hands has to be inculcated in children from a young age before eating, after using the toilet, after playing and after touching pets.

The researched 30 second rule states that if you drop food on the ground, and pick it up within that time, it is unlikely to be contaminated by germs or cause disease. This may sound good in theory, but few people are actually willing to pick up food that has fallen on the floor and then eat it! Houses should be mopped regularly with disinfectant solution. Banisters and other surfaces should also be wiped down.

Sunshine is a bountiful and is God’s natural non chemical disinfectant gifted to us freely. We need to use it to dry clothes, to air out mats and bed linen and allow it to enter our homes to maintain germ-free environment.

(The writer is a paediatrician. If you have any questions on medical or health issues, write in to mindandbody@epmltd.com)

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