Hi, my name is [PRESENTER NAME]. I am [PRESENTER ROLE]. Welcome to “Wash Your Hands to Keep Yourself and Others Healthy: Recommendations for the Developing World.”

Washing your hands regularly and correctly is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce your risk of contracting or transmitting diseases. This video will teach you how to wash your hands correctly, reducing your risk of contracting or transmitting a disease.

Human diseases are caused by organisms such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites that can be found in the air, soil, and water

You will often come in contact with disease causing organisms when you touch things that others have touched. If you then touch your mouth, nose, or eyes, this increases the risk that you will contract a disease. If the disease causing organisms remain on your hands, this increases the risk that you will transmit them to others. When should you wash your hands?

You should always wash your hands:

- after you use the toilet or latrine

- after touching your nose or mouth after a sneeze or cough

- before you prepare or eat food

- after you touch raw meat, fish, or eggs

- before and after you care for someone who is sick

- after you change a diaper

It is especially important to wash your hands before you prepare or eat food. If you don’t, the disease causing organisms from your hands can make you or other people who eat the food extremely sick. The elderly, infants, or people with weakened immune systems are at increased risk of death if they become ill. If you are caring for someone who is sick and has a weakened immune system, such as a person with end stage AIDS, it’s important to wash your hands before touching them to avoid transmitting a disease that might make them very sick.

Finally, it’s extremely important to wash your hands after you use the toilet or latrine. Unfortunately, many people fail to do this, so the latrine is often contaminated with disease causing organisms from feces.

Most people do not wash their hands long enough or thoroughly enough to remove most of the disease causing organisms.

To wash your hands correctly with soap and water:

1) First, wet your hands with warm water. If possible, this should be clean, warm water.

2) Apply soap.

3) Wash the front and back of your hands, your thumbs, between the fingers, around the wrists and forearms and underneath each nail.

4) Remember to rub your hands together for at least twenty seconds.

5) Rinse your hands off.

6) Dry your hands with a clean disposable towel, if available. If no towel is available, do not use your clothes or a towel that has been used by others. In this case, it is best to let your hands dry naturally, in the air.

7) Use the towel to turn off the faucet.

Remember: washing your hands is a simple and effective way to reduce your risk of contracting or transmitting disease. This is [PRESENTER NAME].

SOURCES:

http://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 25 Oct 2002, vol. 51, no. RR-16.

"Avoiding the flu: It's in your hands." Fall 2004 health@mit, issue 10.2.

http://web.mit.edu/medical/mithealth/fall2004/stories/story2_1.shtml

University of Mississippi, National Food Service Management Institute. "Wash Your Hands: Educating the School Community."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterborne_disease

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_hands