National Handwashing Awareness Week

National Handwashing Awareness Week - December 3-9, 2024

Health Awareness

Personal hygiene begins and ends with our hands. And though we’re taught as youngsters to wash our hands before dinner, it’s important to remember that germs don’t care what time of day it is. Clean hands prevent sickness. So it’s especially important to learn the basics about hand hygiene so that you, too, can become a champion hand washer! Let’s examine some handy (see what we did there?) tips and info in honor of National Handwashing Awareness Week, which takes place each year during the first week of December.

National Handwashing Awareness Week timeline

1860

A breakthrough safety process begins

Frenchman Louis Pasteur begins researching causes and prevention of disease, leading to his breakthroughs in vaccination and what came to be known as pasteurization.

1818

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis is born

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, a pioneer in and advocate for antiseptic procedures, is born in Hungary.

C. 1807

Microorganisms are found

Italian entomologist Agostino Bassi discovers that microorganisms can cause disease.

1546

Germ theory begins

Italian scholar and poet Girolamo Fracastoro suggests that epidemics are caused by small particles or "spores" that can be transmitted from one person to another.

C. 400 BCE

Thucydides has a breakthrough moment

The ancient Greek historian Thucydides is the first to suggest that disease can spread from one person to another.

5 Super Clean Facts About Hand Hygiene

  1. Handwashing equals happiness

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, handwashing can prevent 1 in 3 diarrhea-related illnesses and 1 in 5 infections, including the flu.

  2. Beware the twin killers for kids

    About 1.4 million children under age 5 die from diarrheal diseases and pneumonia — the two most deadly afflictions for children worldwide.

  3. The dirty secret of public restrooms

    The CDC also reports that only 31 percent of men and 65 percent of women washed their hands after using a public restroom.

  4. Handwash your way to health

    Using antibiotics creates antibiotic resistance. Handwashing prevents many sicknesses, so people need less antibiotics. Therefore, less antibiotic resistance.

  5. Sneezes are mini hurricanes

    A typical human sneeze exits the body at about 200 miles per hour and emits around 40,000 droplets into the air.

National Handwashing Awareness Week Activities

  1. Do it right

    Experts recommend washing your hands with soap and clean water for at least 20 seconds. Be sure to get a good lather going and clean the back of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails. Dry them using a clean towel. There is a lot of science behind these recommendations, so be sure to follow them each time you wash your hands.

  2. Memorize the five steps

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls hand washing "a do-it-yourself vaccine" and suggests remembering five easy steps: Wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dry.

  3. Learn the Four Principles of Hand Awareness

    Endorsed by the American Medical Association and American Academy of Family Physicians, the four principles are: 1) Wash your hands when they are dirty and before eating; 2) Do not cough into hands; 3) Do not sneeze into hands; and 4) Don't put your fingers in your eyes, nose or mouth.

Why We Love National Handwashing Awareness Week

  1. Healthy hands are happy hands

    And happy hands make for happy and healthy homes.

  2. It helps prevent the spread of germs

    Think of how many different things we touch during the course of an average day. Now imagine how many of those things were touched by other people's hands. Yuck! Wash your hands to prevent the spread of dangerous microbes.

  3. Let's shake on it

    Finally, we love National Handwashing Awareness Week because it reminds everybody else — especially doctors and those who prepare the food we eat — to take cleanliness and hygiene seriously.

Also on Tue Dec 3, 2024...