Keep disease at arm’s length
The start of a new school year is a great time to remind children of the importance of hand-washing, health officials say.
Dr. Dee Hoyano, Island Health medical health officer, said washing the hands is one of the easiest — and most effective — methods we have to prevent disease.
“For school-age kids especially, it’s one of the simplest and most effective infection-control techniques we have,” Hoyano said.
“It works well for all kinds of bugs, bacteria, viruses or dirt in general.”
School is a place where infectious diseases are spread. Teaching kids to wash their hands regularly can cut down on the transmission of everything from gastro-intestinal infections to influenza.
The online source WebMD reports as many as 80 per cent of all infectious diseases are spread through touch.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has called hand-washing the No. 1 method of preventing the spread of viral or bacterial infections. Hoyano said Island Health has, during heavy flu seasons, put out public warnings about the importance of handwashing.
She said hand-sanitizing solution can be effective, but children must be taught to make sure the solution gets to all parts of their hands and fingers.
If hands are visibly dirty, or if they have come into contact with something likely to carry germs, then “the easiest solution is good old soap and water,” Hoyano said.
Hand sanitizers might, however, be appropriate if a child doesn’t have ready access to a hand-washing area and is expected to eat lunch in a classroom.
But Hoyano noted that many schools make it a routine for the children to wash their hands before going to lunch.
“I know in some schools, the kids will all troop out and use the washroom before lunch,” Hoyano said.
“Hand-washing is a learned behaviour and routine. It’s even part of the health curriculum in schools.”