Flu Wash Your Hands, Kill Infectious Germs Updated 2/7/2018
With the most serious Flu epidemic in the USA decades, we reprint the article we posted in 2013, which has been viewed by thousands. Read it, print it, forward it, it may save lives.
This article has been reprinted and spread all over the world, and we encourage that you give it to schools, offices, teachers, and health officials.
I was visiting Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, for a surgical procedure, when one of the nurses said: "This hospital is full, flu cases have filled up our beds." I heard that the main hospital in Lubbock was also full and transferring patients to other cities. This is being repeated all over the country. This flu is more deadly than past strains and includes two major strains of flu.
My doctor's advice. Wash yourself. Bath with soap, and use disinfectant soap if you can get it. And wash your hands repeatedly. Everything, every person you touch could infect you. One source said that: "Airports, areas of huge crowds, malls, shopping areas, schools, churches, disinfect every surface if you can, don't touch what you don't have to, and wash your hands many times a day."
I was at a bank convention and in the men's room noticed the President of one of the nation's largest banks taking a leak. I wanted to meet him, but then I was astonished. HE DIDN'T WASH HIS HANDS, HE JUST ZIPPED UP AND WALKED BACK INTO THE CONVENTION FLOOR TO MEET AND GREET PEOPLE (AND SHAKE HANDS). After that, I didn't want to meet him, and especially didn't want to shake hands with him.
Over the years, I always notice, and avoid those rude men, or women who are so arrogant they don't think they need to wash THEIR hands, and they have no respect for other people.
The CDC tells us that about 15% of men in America don't wash their hands after using the rest room and a high percentage of those have urine and fecal traces on their hands.Worse than that, the CDC reports that most people don't wash their hands long enough to kill the bacteria. If we washed properly, flu epidemics and the spread of colds would drop substantially. Only 5 percent of people properly washed their hands long enough to kill infection-causing germs and bacteria. Consider Africa and the spread of Ebola. Personal habits of washing hands often and correctly could save so many lives. Think of all the things your hands touch, and life threatening virus can spread by contact.
The CDC says that you should soap and rub your hands under clean water for a minimum of 20 seconds. (Sing Happy Birthday twice and that should get you there).
Interesting facts:
- 95% of people don't wash properly to be effective
- 33% don't use soap (50% of men use soap, 79% of women do)
- 15% of men don't wash hands at all, 7% of women don't wash.
- average wash time is 6 seconds
We credit the June issue of the Journal of Environmental Health, for some of this information.The fecal-oral route is a chief way food borne illness is spread through restaurants, because people don't wash their hands properly.
If you can't wash with water and soap, the CDC recommends an alcohol-based hand sanitizer -- at least 60 percent alcohol -- rubbed all over hand and finger surfaces until it dries. But even that only eliminates a percentage of germs. Nothing is as effective as soap and water.
Pass this article on...if could save lives.