Global Handwashing Day 2020: Pros and Cons of Hand Sanitizers

“Global Handwashing Day is every year celebrated on October 15 to raise awareness about the significance of washing hands with soap and water. The purpose of Global Handwashing Day is to raise awareness about advantages of regularly washing hands with soap and fresh water. We advise you to stop using chemical soaps and start making your own natural soap instead.” The day additionally proposes to sensitize individuals about how handwashing is likewise a viable method to prevent diseases. The theme of Global Handwashing Day 2020 is ‘Hand Hygiene for All’. The theme is basically to ask individuals across society to achieve universal hand hygiene.

The significance of washing hands has expanded complex, particularly during the times of novel coronavirus. It is because of the global pandemic that one is reminded of how handwashing with soap is the most secure alternative to keep the deadly virus away. One can’t disregard the way that hand washing is the least complex, generally moderate, and effective method of keeping the virus away.

Handwashing is a straightforward and feasible way to deal with diminish the spread of germs. Global Handwashing Day is seen on 15 October every year to promote the significance of handwashing in preventing diseases. One of the most significant things to remember about the prevention of COVID-19 disease is that it tends to have stayed away from by something as basic as incessant and suitable handwashing. This is a modest, viable, and safe way that can keep you from falling sick. This can be handily educated to even a small child, to insure them against diseases. The World Health Organization says that handwashing with soap and water saves lives. They have recommended the 8 steps to perform effective handwashing.

When to wash your hands

As you contact individuals, surfaces, and objects for the duration of the day, you collect irresistible operators on your hands. Thus, you can contaminate yourself with these, by contacting your eyes, nose, or mouth. Even though it’s difficult to keep your hands germ-free, washing your hands oftentimes can help limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses, and different microbes. Coronavirus is a respiratory virus and subsequently, it is important to ensure your hands remain clean as they are the part of the body that touches your face constantly.

Always wash your hands previously:

• Preparing food or eating
• Giving medication to relatives, or caring for a sick or harmed individual
• Inserting or eliminating contact lenses

Always wash your hands after:

• Using public spaces and articles like door handles, taxis, ATM, and lift buttons.
• Getting ready food, particularly raw meat or poultry
• Using the toilet or changing a diaper
• Touching a creature or creature toys, leashes or waste
• Blowing your nose, hacking or sneezing into your hands
• Treating wounds or caring for a sick or harmed individual
• Handling trash, household or garden chemicals, or anything that could be defiled —, for example, a cleaning cloth or soiled shoes
• Shaking hands with others ought to be stayed away from yet on the off chance that you do, at that point sanitize and clean with soap and water after that

Also, wash your hands at whatever point they look dirty.

How to wash your hands

It’s commonly best to wash your hands with soap and water. Follow these simple steps:

• Wet your hands with running water — either warm or cold.
• Apply liquid, bar, or powder soap.
• Lather well.
• Rub your hands energetically for at least 20 seconds. Make sure to scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers, and under your fingernails.
• Rinse well.
• Dry your hands with a clean or dispensable towel or air dryer.
• If conceivable, use a towel or your elbow to turn off the faucet.

Antibacterial soaps, for example, those containing triclosan, are not any more powerful at eliminating germs than is ordinary soap.

Why handwashing is superior to hand sanitizer

Most doctors believe that washing hands with soap and water works much better at eliminating germs when contrasted with the hand sanitizers. They advise that sanitizers should just be used in places where soap and water are not accessible. Even though hand sanitizers may kill certain viruses and bacteria, they don’t clean your hands as hand wash does. They abandon dirt and debris and cause the skin to feel smooth and slick. Antibacterial hand washes work much better and are more exhaustive, which settles on them a favored decision among doctors.

Hand sanitizer sales surge in the midst of COVID-19 emergency

As the coronavirus disease spreads, individuals are loading up on hand sanitizers. This has brought about the skyrocketing of the interest for hand sanitizers. As indicated by Nielsen, the demand for hand sanitizers has developed by 87 percent and is relied upon to develop at a strong rate of 10% to 15% for the coming four to five years.

The prominence of hand sanitizers however has obscured the way that they are only one of the numerous alternatives. Washing your hands with a hand wash or soap and water is the highest quality level for preventing germs and infections. Also, let us attempt to comprehend these options in detail.

Pros and cons of hand sanitizers

Hand sanitizers are very versatile and can be carried anyplace in pockets, purses, and bags. It additionally serves well in places where soap and water are not accessible. This is the significant advantage of hand sanitizers.

Yet, the issue with hand sanitizers is that they are insufficient towards specific types of bacteria and viruses, for example, hand sanitizer can’t kill C. difficile, which is a type of bacteria that causes diarrhea from antibiotic overuse.

Some hand sanitizers can likewise desert a buildup that may be smooth and make individuals awkward. Likewise, sanitizers are not especially good at eliminating grime. In this way, while they can eliminate germs, they can’t eliminate oil, oils, and bodily liquids. This shows that while sanitizers are useful for specific circumstances, hand wash is a definitive arrangement.

How to select the right-hand sanitizer

Here are a few things to remember before you buy a hand sanitizer:

Ensure the sanitizer has at least 70% alcohol content. This is significant because alcohol deals with the sanitization cycle and those sanitizers that have lesser alcohol content are inadequate against numerous pathogens. The FDA prescribes purchasers to get hand sanitizers that have 95 percent ethanol or isopropanol.

Some sanitizers in the market are being promoted as ‘alcohol-free sanitizers’. Abstain from using those as there isn’t adequate proof to propose on the off chance that they work at all. Likewise, since alcohol acts as a preservative, the alcohol-based sanitizers are more averse to be tainted when contrasted with ‘alcohol-free’ sanitizers.

Some sanitizers may contain a chemical called triclosan, which is believed to lessen the viability of the hand sanitizer and may even prompt an expansion in bacterial obstruction.

There are numerous options for sterilizing hands nowadays and every alternative has its pros and cons. While the sanitizers are not as intensive or as compelling as ordinary antibacterial hand washes, they’re compact – which makes them a helpful option in places where a hand wash can’t be used. By using everything in the right way and the ideal spot, we can keep ourselves protected and secure.

Tips for washing your hands more often

Expanding “motivation to hand wash in the face of stress and busyness is a difficult challenge,” Berry said. Since we don’t have the signage and social cues we usually do in public, a couple of procedures could help develop inspiration and “go a long way to remind us of our motivations to be more hygienic.”

Build your knowledge into the coronavirus and the risks.

Tape to your entrance hall and bathroom wall or mirror pieces of paper that state, “Don’t forget to wash hands.”

Further, disguise the habit and motivation by making a daily schedule and seeing yourself as a role model for other people.

By considering oneself a role model, “we engage the activity differently; we consciously begin to identify that hand washing is an important” personal and social value to be shared with others, Berry said. “You begin to see yourself as an active participant in the solution, making the world better, and it feels good to do something positive too.”

Face-mask wearers wash their hands more frequently than non-mask wearers — possibly because of one precautionary behavior reminding the wearer about the need to perform other related habits.

“The concept of chunking is very common in habit research and is really important,” Mullan said. “If we can hook one behavior on to another we are much more likely to do it.”