Wash Your Hands, Please.

October 15 is Blog Action Day, a day when  thousands of bloggers from over 133 countries  are  blogging  about one issue, WATER. And October 15 is Global Handwashing Day.

The value of water… well, we all know it…it’s our life.
Among other things, water also contributes to health, … through hygiene.

Water- and sanitation-related disease,  despite being preventable, remains one of the most significant child health problems worldwide.
Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.
90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

It is also true that without water there is no hygiene. Research shows that the less readily available water is, the less likely that good hygiene will be practised in households. And hand washing would be a very uncommon practice.
Studies show that, 80 percent of infections are transmitted by direct and indirect contact, thus, hand washing is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself! And others!

Every hand you shake, every hand rail you touch, every door knob, every light switch, every counter top, every dog you pet…simply everything you touch can place dangerous germs on your hands.

The importance of hand washing can be assessed by looking at a list of germs found on human hands. Here are a few:germfarm_copy

  • Shigella flexneri…causes vomiting, headache, diarrhea
  • Streptococcus pyrogens…causes tonsillitis, sore throats, scarlet fever,impetigo
  • Salmonella … causes severe diarrhea, stomach pain, dizziness, fever
  • Rhino virus…over 200 strains causing great misery in the form of colds
  • Proteus vulgaris…urinary tract infections
  • Hepatitis A…vomiting, liver disorders, jaundice
  • Escherichia coli O157 …kidney failure, uncontrollable fever, death
  • Rotavirus …55,000 children hospitalized with this each year
  • Echovirus…meningitis, encephalitis, neonatal sepsis, myocarditis, and chronic infection
  • Coxsackie virus…sore throat, abdominal discomfort, or nausea

We all can help in the prevention of disease by promoting the importance of hand washing!
It is extremely important to wash your hands.

  • After using the washroom at home or at any public place.
  • Before as well as after eating food.
  • After visiting a patient at the hospital.
  • Before and after one starts cooking food, especially meat, fish and poultry.
  • After changing a baby’s diaper.
  • After touching pets or cleaning their feces.
  • Before touching young infants and children.
  • Before and after touching injured areas and changing the dressing of a wounded person.
  • After collecting and throwing out garbage.
  • After sneezing, coughing and blowing your nose.
  • After cleaning around the house.
  • After being outside (playing, gardening, walking the dog, etc.)

Hygiene is probably more necessary today than it has ever been!!
So, like it or not, but PLEASE, Wash Your Hands!!
So this Blog Action Day, take a deep drink of precious water and join a few thousand bloggers in taking action in spreading awareness and discussing the issues. After that, “Keep the discussion going,” says Change.org’s Tchijov. Working together, you might help make a difference.

PS : Part of it is a Re-Post!

Change.org|Start Petition