Dry hands from all that washing?
Are your hands painfully dry and cracked from frequent washing or applying hand sanitizer to prevent the spread of the coronavirus?
If so, you should moisturize as well.
“Keeping skin moisturized is important,” said Craig Shapiro, a doctor of pediatric infectious diseases in Delaware. “If the skin is breaking down or raw, then the soap and alcohol disinfectants do not work as well. Also, when skin is chapped and broken, it’s uncomfortable and people can be less likely to wash their hands.”
Cracked and bleeding hands are also more susceptible to infections.
“Whenever you have a break in that skin barrier, that allows germs to invade the skin area,” said Christina Johns, senior medical adviser for PM Pediatrics.
Any microbe can technically enter through open wounds, Johns said, though coronavirus tends to enter the body through the respiratory system. Through the skin, transmission tends to be typical skin bacteria, such as staph infections and strep.
Moisturizing hands reduces microbial shedding from the skin and is part of good hand hygiene, which will protect people from picking up viruses and reduce the likelihood of transmission.
Johns recommends that people apply a thick, emollient moisturizer in ointment form rather than rely on creams and lotions, which can have alcohol and cause further drying.
Shapiro recommends selecting a soap or sanitizer with an emollient and avoiding perfumes and dyes as they can irritate skin. Soaps and sanitizers with moisturizers can be just as effective, though Shapiro says hand sanitizers should have at least 60 per cent alcohol.
“Lotion doesn’t need to be a constant thing to be effective,” said Preeti Malani, an infectious-disease doctor and chief health officer at the University of Michigan.
And it doesn’t need to be expensive: Drugstore brands, such as Vaseline and Aquaphor, can work well.
Moisturizing lotions work by locking in existing moisture, so the ideal time to apply them is after washing when the skin is hydrated.
“At bedtime, put on some good-quality, inexpensive, effective moisturizer,” she said. “If your skin is becoming raw and dry, you might be washing your hands too much.”
Johns says not to share moisturizer with anyone else. “You don’t want dirty fingers on the pumps. Fewer things coming into contact is best practice in general, in terms of minimizing germs and microbes.”
Doctors caution against relying exclusively on sanitizer. When hands are visibly dirty or greasy, soap and water should be used.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends washing your hands frequently, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
You should spend 20 seconds and make sure to lather up the parts of the hands that are often overlooked — the backs, between the fingers, the thumbs and under the nails. (Some experts recommend cutting your nails.) After washing, you should dry your hands thoroughly.