Wash your hands, a small action saves many lives

Many studies have shown that unclean hands can contain millions of bacteria and many pathogens, but many people forget the simplest way to prevent disease is to wash hands with soap.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of the communication campaign Journey of 10 million clean hands and seasonal disease prevention held in Hanoi on May 15, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien emphasized communication activities to change people's hand washing behavior with soap.

According to the Minister, washing hands with soap is a seemingly simple task that anyone can do and do regularly, but in reality, this rate is still very low, even in medical facilities. The most recent survey by the Ministry of Health shows that only 23% of people wash their hands before eating and 36% wash their hands after using the toilet.

In fact, very few people wash their hands properly. Many people wash their hands frequently but it is not effective in killing bacteria because they only wash with water. Some people wash their hands with soap but ignore the private areas of the hands such as between the fingers, fingertips, and thumbs.

Washing hands properly with soap is an effective, easy, and inexpensive way to prevent disease. Many studies have shown that “unclean” hands can contain millions of bacteria and many pathogens.Dirty hands are the risk factor for a series of diseases. Up to 50% of contagious diseases such as flu, diarrhea, hand, foot and mouth disease… are caused by improper personal hygiene.

According to the World Health Organization, handwashing with soap saves more lives than any vaccine, reducing respiratory infections by 19-45%.In Vietnam, statistics from the Ministry of Health show that of the 10/26 infectious diseases with the highest incidence, about half are gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. These diseases are related to clean water, environmental sanitation and personal behavior. In particular, hand washing with soap plays a very important role in disease prevention.

Regular hand washing with soap can reduce the risk of gastrointestinal diseases by 47% and acute respiratory infections by more than 30%. In addition, if babysitters wash their hands with soap before and after preparing food for their children, the rate of underweight malnourished children will decrease by 1-10%.

According to VNE