By having good hand hygiene people can keep themselves healthy and prevent the spread of illness and disease.  This helps to keep other people healthy too.

HANDWASHING is #1 in the hygiene stakes. Keeping our hands clean with good hand washing is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs (bacteria and viruses) to others.

Some illnesses and diseases that can be spread by poor hand hygiene are colds and flu, gastro (to name a few).

We need to wash our hands:

• after going to the toilet
• after coughing, sneezing and blowing your nose
• after patting and playing with animals
• before eating, preparing or touching food
• after touching food such as raw chicken, meat and fish

It takes soap and water to wash our hands properly (or hand sanitiser if soap and water is not available) and we need to wash our hands for at least 15 – 20 seconds (sing the Alphabet song) to get rid of the germs adequately.