FPS staff report
December 9, 2008
The Carroll County Health Department and the Henry the Hand Foundation are celebrating “National Handwashing Week” Dec. 7-13.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), handwashing is the single most important means to prevent the spread of infection. The CDC estimates that 36,000 people die from flu or flu-like illnesses each year; 5,000 people die from food borne illness each year and between 78,000 and 90,000 patients die each year from Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI), for which a direct link to many of these deaths is poor handwashing.
Furthermore, of the 33 million hospital admissions annually, there are two million patients who contact HAIs. Handwashing and hand awareness is important for nosocomial infections prevention, food safety, school health, personal health and disease prevention.
A total of 164,000,000 days are lost from school due to illness of which 22,000,000 are due to the common cold alone. There are many critical times to wash your hands. A few examples are before eating, after the toilet, during food preparation, after handling animals, upon arriving home, after changing diapers, leaving the hospital or physican’s office and any time you think your hands are dirty. Use soap, running water and scrub all surfaces of your hands for 20 seconds and dry with a paper towel.
Henry the Hand Champion Handwasher and the Carroll County Health Department are asking you to help reduce infectious disease spread by our hands. By making handwashing and hand awareness a habit, you can help spread the word not germs. Information and activities can be found at www.henrythehand.com.
The first National Handwashing Awareness Week started in 1999 in Cincinnati due to the flu vaccine shortage by the collaboration of the Henry the Hand Foundation and the Greater Cincinnati Health Council Flu Vaccine Committee.
For more information or educational materials, contact the Carroll County Health Department at 330-627-4866. |
