5 Reasons Hand Hygiene Matters
Posted in Articles by Dialysis Clinic, Inc
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studies show some healthcare providers practice hand hygiene less than half of the times they should.
We can do better than that. For safety sake, let’s commit to clean hands. Below are a few top reasons to remind you why clean hands count.
- Hands are the main source of germ transmission, especially in dialysis while inserting needles or using a catheter. Thousands of people die every day around the world from infections acquired while receiving health care.
- Properly washing your hands can prevent more than 200 different diseases from being spread.
- The CDC says that one study found that providing handwashing education in the community reduces the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by more than 30%.
- The CDC also says that another study found handwashing is directly related to a reduction in respiratory illness, like the common cold, in the general population by 16-21%.
- Germs can get onto your hands even if you don’t have contact with another person. For example, if you touch a contaminated object (such as a doorknob that someone opened after sneezing into their hand) you have now picked up those germs. If they are not washed off, you can spread them from person to person, often without realizing it.
Check out the CDC’s resource, “Show me the Science“, for more information about hand hygiene.
Tags: dialysis, germs, hand hygiene, handwashing, prevention