It's Monday 15th October 2018 and that means that today it is Global Handwashing Day! An awareness day which exclusively designed to increase the awareness and understanding of the importance to thoroughly wash your hands. And yes, I know it sounds like another pointless and funny throw-a-way days. Yet, there are over 30,000 units of bacteria on a smart phone. 26,000 units of bacteria on a bank note. Not to mention that your office desk had 400x the bacteria than your toilet (Site 3).
Worryingly, 80% of all communicable diseases are spread by just touching. These diseases could be either, conjunctivitis, the common cold, the herpes simplex virus (Cold sores) or more worryingly, mycoplasma pneumonia (Site 3). 'Touching' doesn't necessarily mean touching other people. The touching of food as well as the eyes, nose or mouth is more likely going to cause you to pass on or receive a disease. One of the most important time to wash your hands is before you prepare food. Which only a staggering 20% of people do. Food handling without washing hands could possibly cause infections such as salmonella, E. Coli or Staph. If you simply wash your hands before handling your food, you can reduce that risk by 40%.
It's not just us who feel unwell if we don't wash our hands. Infections caught within hospital costs the NHS a high estimate of £1billon per year. This is a total number of 300,000 of us Brits whilst staying at hospital. It's thought to be mostly caused by dirty hands. Not to mention the mortally rate which is shockingly high at 13% (Site 3).
It was the work of the physician, Ignaz Semmelweis who discovered that the hygienic practice of hand washing could save lives. This discovery took place in the 1840's and because of it Ignaz Semmelweis is considered the pioneer of antiseptic techniques. During the 1800, medical staff such as doctors and medical students would just routinely walk straight from a dissection of a corpse to a mother in labour. Not once washing their hands. They even do this for surgeries too. Consequentially, those mothers would die from infections after childbirths which were called 'Childbed' and puerperal fevers. Ignaz Semmelweis worked in a maternity ward which had a shocking death rate. Sources differ on this rate, but Best and Neuhauser's paper stated it was around 13% to 18% (Site 2). This rate is horrendous considering the other ward within the teaching hospital at Vienna had a death rate of 2%. That ward was maternity ward 2 which was only staffed with midwives. Ignaz Semmelweis noticed this difference and started to promote the idea of hand washing with chlorinated solutions. Sadly, this didn't go well. He was ridiculed and ignored. Even though the act of the doctors washing their hands drastically decreased the deaths of the mothers. Eventually, Ignaz was dismissed from the hospital and forced to move to Budapest due to harassment. This caused the physician to write bitter letters which stated that the European obstetricians (A physician trained in pregnancy) were murders. His wife and his closest friends believed that Ignaz was losing his mind so unfortunately sent Ignaz Semmelweis to an asylum. After 14 days, Ignaz was dead. He passed away on the 13th August 1865.
Sadly, Ignaz would never see his work being accepted. He published his work in 1861 titled, The Aetiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever. Just years after his death, his work received worldwide recognition after Louie Pasteur discovered Germ Theory. Pasteur's work demonstrated a theoretical explanation (Site 5 & 6).
Both Semmelweis's and Pasteur's work demonstrated the need for hygiene practices. And now in the 21st century mostly everyone appreciates hygiene practises. Especially given that antiseptic hand gels are readily available any hospitals to the staff as well as the visitors. But, the BBC reported on a survey in which 99% of the people asked whether they had washed their hands after going to the toilet said that they did. Yet when the recording device was looked at. Only 32% of men along with 62% of women had actually washed their hands which is shocking (Site 4). As washing your hands after going to the toilet is one of the most important things. You should dry them properly too, you are 1000x more likely to spread bacteria then when hands are dry.
Do you know that in the UK Faecal (Poo) matter was found on 26% of hands? Or that 14% of all bank notes have faecal matter on them? Or maybe that 11% of hands are considered grossly contaminated? (Site 4)
I bet you'll want to clean your hands now...
Links to the Sources I have used - For those who'd want to read more
Site 1: http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/ignazsemmelweis
Site 2: Best, M. Neuhauser, D (2004). Ignaz Semmelweis and the birth of infection control. BMJ 13,3. [Online]. [Accessed 11 October 2018] Available at https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/13/3/233
Site 3: https://www.initial.co.uk/blog/five-shocking-facts-hand-hygiene/
Site 4: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19834975
Site 5: http://semmelweis.org/about/dr-semmelweis-biography/
Site 6: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ignaz-Semmelweis
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