HEALTHCARE
isn’t as easily dissolved. That said, however, a soapy environment can still adversely affect protein structure and inactivate a virus. Of course alcohol-based hand sanitisers and antibacterial soaps are likely to be more effective than soap. It is normal to have germs living on the skin. Whilst soap and water do a good job of removing germs from the hands it is important to ensure that hands are properly dried. It is more likely that wet hands will spread germs more than dry ones. It takes around 20-30 seconds to dry the hands well with paper cloth towels and 30-45 seconds under an air dryer. There are three important tips associated with washing hands: • Don’t scrub the hands as it can damage the skin and potentially provide small cuts for germs to enter. • Try to keep your fingernails short as bacteria like the area under the nails and longer nails are harder to keep clean. • Don’t be in a hurry as it takes around a minute to properly wash and dry the hands. Alcohol-based cleansers kill germs by denaturing (changing the shape) of proteins essential to the survival of viruses and bacteria. Most cleansers have a high level of alcohol (around 60 per cent) mixed in with skin conditioners as alcohol itself would dry out the skin. Research has shown that alcohol based cleansers have reduced germ counts on hands better than soap.
“Hygiene in healthcare is an extremely important and complex field with new innovative approaches regularly hitting the market.” Alcohol, however, does not kill everything such as bacterial spores and non-enveloped viruses. A non-enveloped virus is very virulent, can damage host cells significantly and is more resistant to harsh environments than an enveloped virus with its membrane of lipids and protein. That’s why each environment needs to carefully assess its hand cleaning requirements. For example, many hospitals go back to soap and water cleansing during cold weather vomiting outbreaks that may be caused by non-enveloped more virulent viruses. Hygiene in healthcare is an extremely important and complex field with new innovative approaches regularly hitting the market. This article simply scrapes the surface of the field where the importance of hand washing is an emphasised safety measure all people can do to improve healthcare hygiene and reduce spread of infection and illness. *
Dr Denis Boulias is national safety manager at Broadlex Services
www.broadlex.com.au
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