Handwashing
March 2008

iFSN: Handwashing public service announcements
30.mar.08
International Food Safety Network
Audio and video PSAs available at:
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/03/articles/handwashing/handwashing-public-service-announcements/index.html
Dude, wash your hands.
Proper handwashing with the proper tools -- soap, water and paper towel -- can significantly reduce the number of foodborne and other illnesses.
People should be washing their hands before handling food and, for example:_
• after using the toilet;
• when entering the kitchen to prepare food;
• before handling ready-to-eat food;
• after handling any raw food;
• after changing diapers;
• after playing with or cleaning up after pets; and,
• after handling garbage.
The steps in proper handwashing, as concluded from the preponderance of available evidence, are:
• wet hands with water;
• use enough soap to build a good lather;
• scrub hands vigorously, creating friction and reaching all areas of the fingers and hands for at least 10 seconds to loosen pathogens on the fingers and hands;
• rinse hands with thorough amounts of water while continuing to rub hands; and,
• dry hands with paper towel.
Water temperature is not a critical factor -- water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would scald hands -- so use whatever is comfortable.
The friction from rubbing hands with paper towels helps remove additional bacteria and viruses.
Next time you visit a bathroom that is missing soap, water or paper towels, let someone in charge know. And next time you see someone skip out on the suds in the bathroom, look at them and say, “Dude, wash your hands!”
And Don't Eat Poop.

MICHIGAN: Wash hands well, often to avoid Hepatitis A
19.mar.08
mlive.com
Genesee County Health Department
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/voices/index.ssf/2008/03/wash_hands_well_often_to_avoid.html
Hepatitis is an illness caused by a virus that can damage the liver and cause other health problems.
Unlike hepatitis B and C, which are spread by blood and body fluids, hepatitis A is spread from food contaminated with the virus or from contact with human feces.
When someone with hepatitis A does not wash his or her hands properly after having a bowel movement, traces of fecal matter and the hepatitis A virus may remain on the hands. That person can then infect others by touching something that may go in another person's mouth, including hands, food, beverages or eating utensils.
Symptoms of hepatitis A include:
• Feeling very tired
• Fever
• Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes
• Dark colored urine and/or clay-colored (gray) bowel movements
• Stomach pain
Symptoms of hepatitis A usually appear from 15 to 50 days after exposure to the virus. It is also common that someone infected with hepatitis A may have no symptoms of the illness. There is no treatment for hepatitis A, but the illness will run its course in approximately 2-6 months.
The best way to prevent the spread of hepatitis A is to wash hands well and often, especially after using the toilet. Always wash hands after using the bathroom, changing a diaper, and before preparing or eating food.
Do not share towels, washcloths, soap, or eating utensils with someone who has hepatitis A. People with hepatitis A should not make or handle food that others will eat until at least 2 weeks after their symptoms are gone. There is a vaccine available for long-term protection against hepatitis A.
For information on this or other health topics, contact the Genesee County Health Department at (810) 257-3612 or visit us on the Web at www.gchd.us.

CANADA: Device reminds health workers to wash hands
03.mar.08
CTV
CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080303/
handwashing_080303/20080303?hub=Health
Canadian researchers at Toronto Rehab have, according to this story, developed a system that uses electronic sensors over a patient's bed to detect whether health workers have washed their hands. If they haven't, it signals a device worn around the worker's neck to issue a "beep'' as a reminder. The system also includes a supply of alcohol disinfectant for those times when soap and water isn't within reach.
The researchers hope the system will cut rates of hospital-acquired infections. Geoff Fernie, vice-president of research at Toronto Rehab, notes that each year in Canada about 8,000 patients die from hospital-acquired infections. That's about 22 patients a day. As many as half of those deaths can be attributed to poor hand cleaning.
The story says that most hospitals have tried many strategies to raise awareness among health care workers about the importance of handwashing -- from educational seminars to poster campaigns.
In almost every instance, hand-washing compliance usually rises initially, but over time tends to slip back again. That's not because health workers don't understand that hand hygiene can help stem the spread of superbugs such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), C. difficile, E. coli and strains of viral influenza; it's simply a matter of having a lot on their minds.
Veronique Boscart, a Toronto Rehab nurse and researcher who worked on the system's first pilot study, was quoted as saying, "When you are busy, disinfecting your hands every time you have contact with a new patient is very difficult to sustain over time."
Fernie was quoted as saying, "A busy nurse will have to wash her hands 60-70 times an hour in a busy hour. So it's not at all surprising that human beings would forget to do it sometimes. So we need to help them."
Fernie's team has developed a system where health care workers wear a sensor on a rope around their necks. An electronic monitoring system running along a track on ward ceilings takes note of when a worker stops at a patient's bed.
When they move on and stop again at another bed, if they have not used the alcohol gel dispenser that is attached at their waists or have not stopped at a sensor-equipped sink or a wall-mounted gel dispenser to wash their hands, the system will beep, reminding the worker to disinfect their hands.
The device also keeps track of your compliance rate, which you can then download to note your handwashing history. Fernie said the data collection is not meant to be used by supervisors to monitor their staff, but rather a means of showing each worker if their handwashing hygiene is waning over time.
"I was worried early on that there is an element of 'Big Brother'-creepy element that you know where people are and what they are doing," he says. But Fernie said his team found in their pilot studies that staff actually appreciated the system.
Dr. Allison McGeer, director of Infection Control at Mount Sinai Hospital who is on the team developing the system, was cited as saying the health care workers who have tried it like it and so does she, adding, "It lets me focus on the task I am doing with the patient, but it flags me when it wants me to do something that it doesn't want me to think about."You can think about it like the alarm for the seatbelt in your car."
The story explains that over the next two years, two wards at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and two at Toronto Rehab will be designated as test sites.
Then, the research team plans to develop with a commercial partner. If all goes well, the system should be on the market within two years, at an estimated cost of $300 per bed.
McGeer says she initially thought that sounded expensive when you calculate how many beds there are in a hospital. But she believes, it in the end, it will actually save hospitals money.
"If it works to significantly improve hand hygiene, $300 is nothing. You don't have to make a big difference in hospital-acquired infection rates to save a very large amount of money. So, if it reduces infections, it will make a dramatic difference in costs."