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Thanks to the emergence of Covid-19, new approaches in education, awareness, and social-media nudges have proven to be effective in hand washing engagement, writes Rich Mkhondo.
When we were all growing up we were told that the best way to protect oneself from disease is through personal hygiene, which refers to the set of practices designed to maintain cleanliness of the body.
For example, when my siblings and I shared meals from one plate, we religiously washed our hands before digging in.
So why has this culture slowly disappeared from our daily life and minute by minute routines?
Is it because the prevalence of fork and knife or the fast-paced way of life or world of work that we do not dedicate time to wash our hands regularly?
Hand washing has become fashionable
Welcome to the coronavirus (Covid-19) era. The centuries-old hand-washing and hand-sanitising has become fashionable and the number one item on the prevention agenda.
This is not new and surprising at all.
For centuries we have known that good personal hygiene prevents diseases and of course contributes to good looks and self-confidence.
The truth is simple cleanliness, starting with hand washing lies at the bottom of everything.
It represents our human side and not only the demands of our extremely ancient biology, but also our very love of grooming, orderliness, and beauty.
For centuries we were told and read that the things we handle with our hands brought cases of diarrhea, intestinal parasitism, amoebiasis, hepatitis A, typhoid, and other enteric fevers, fungal and parasitic skin infestations such as head lice, body lice, athletes foot, and scabies; eye infections such as sore-eyes, dental caries, gum diseases and bad breath; respiratory tract infections including the common cold, and even body odour.
So hand washing is one the most intensive and regular forms of bodily cleansing that we do to ourselves, and fully deserves to be rescued.
Airports and germs
This was confirmed by research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which recently found that if more people at airports would practice better personal hygiene - particularly keeping their hands clean - the spread of many contagious diseases could be slowed significantly.
The MIT study was published in late December, just before the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, although the study’s authors noted that their findings would pertain to any kind of infectious viral disease.
"Airports, and airplanes, are highly infectious because they are close, confined areas with large, mobile populations," said Christos Nicolaides, one of the study’s lead authors and a physicist at MIT, in a released statement.
"Viruses are spread through bodily fluids, so keeping hands clean at major transport hubs is central to control spread."
Nicolaides, said in a study published in the journal Risk Analysis, the researchers estimate that if just 60 percent of travellers passing through the world’s airports kept their hands clean, the risk of a potential infectious disease pandemic would decrease by almost 70 percent.
Even if that level of hand cleanliness were achieved in just 10 of the world’s leading airports, the risk would drop by 37 percent, say the researchers.
Currently, only about one in five travellers in airports have clean hands at any given moment, previous research has suggested.
Poor hygiene and diseases
Also, WaterAid's State of Hygiene in Southern Africa report argues that poor hygiene is a major contributor to several hygiene-related diseases in the Southern Africa region.
WaterAid's work in 28 countries to provide clean water, proper toilets and good hygiene to the public has emphasised that good hygiene practices are essential in preventing the spread of potentially deadly waterborne disease and without them, the benefits of other poverty reduction strategies will be undermined and human dignity compromised, the report said.
WaterAid said personal hygiene practices differ from country to country and disparities exist between urban and rural areas, and between rich and poor households and identifies some of the main areas for improvement in hygiene practices.
The organisation called on people to stop open defecation, which presents a significant public health risk, but remains widespread in many countries including Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The report found that the practice of hand washing is low and basic hand washing with soap and water is practised by less than a quarter of the population in five out of eight countries for which data is available.
The truth is there is a certain timelessness about cleansing and cleanliness that seems to intrigue all of us - and even horrify us.
With Covid-19 upon us, it is everyone’s duty to adhere to the importance of strict infection control through hand washing all the time, whether at home or at work.
Implementing basic infection-control practices starting with hand-washing breaks the chain of infection.
And of course, infection control is not only about keeping ourselves healthy, but also our friends, family and colleagues.
Hygiene and everything we touch
We have long known that germs are spread through everyday contact such as turning the handle of a door, using someone else's dirty pen.
We have known that most bacteria are transferred from our hands, so practising basic hygiene principles could mean you don't become one of the deadly statistics.
Hey. You never know who touched those stair railings, shopping trolley handle.
It stands to reason that washing and drying our hands correctly or using anti-bacterial gel will help control the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases.
While hand-washing triumphs all hygiene guidelines, every part of the world - or any social group - has its own unique profile and history of cleansing, purification, or hygienic practices, and its own cultural mix.
The science of hygiene is very broad.
While a student of Biology, I learnt that there can be no disputing the link between hygiene and survival.
We learnt that the body protects itself from threats to its survival by fighting internal poisoning, and premature decay.
The body defends through self-defensive and self-cleansing measures.
Personal hygiene is part of grooming.
For example as babies start toilet-training - or in adults, the act of performing your "toilet" - is in fact part of a whole repertoire of grooming behaviour, common to all species.
Grooming describes everything that we would now call personal hygiene.
Grooming is our final physiological defence system, taking place "outside", on the exposed surfaces of the body, in direct response to the environment.
It is a behaviour trait that employs all the senses and looks after all the body parts.
It is grooming that saves the body from falling into disrepair, the same grooming that induces respect.
Emphasising an increase in hand-hygiene may be old culture is a challenge.
But, thanks to the emergence of Covid-19, new approaches in education, awareness, and social-media nudges have proven to be effective in hand washing engagement.
Keeping our hands free of infectious germs
It is up to each of us to keep our hands free of infectious germs, whether we’re in an airport or any other public place. That means washing our hands frequently.
Here’s a reminder from the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to wash our hands effectively:
Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap;
- Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails;
- Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds;
- Rinse your hands well under clean, running water; and
- Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.
Personal hygiene is the single most important action all of us can take at this time and all the time.
- Rich Mkhondo runs The Media and Writers Firm (www.mediaandwritersfirm.com), a content development and reputation management hub.
