St. Louis Today
1/17/2005

It's no secret that many of us enjoy singing in the shower. But it seems that more of us should sing at the sink, as well.

Just 20 seconds spent washing your hands - the time it takes to sing the alphabet song, for example - can help ward off germs that cause illness.

With cold and flu season kicking into high gear, proper hand washing with soap and warm water is critical to good health. But in addition to these seasonal illnesses, other diseases - such as hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea - can be prevented year-round if we all pick up the hand-washing habit.

Infectious diseases remain the leading cause of death and disease worldwide, as well as the third-leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Hand washing is the single most effective thing you can do to stop the spread of germs, but many people either don't wash often enough or fail to wash properly," says Joyce Berkowitz, infection control coordinator at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. "Parents should be hand-washing role models for their children, and teach them to wash hands before meals, after bathroom use, after coughing or sneezing, and even when the child comes in after play."

One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or their eyes after their hands have been contaminated with the cold virus. Illness can spread quickly in a setting such as school, where children can easily spread germs and where those germs can live for up to two hours on desks, cafeteria tables and other surfaces.

When to wash

The CDC advises that it is especially important to wash your hands:

Before, during and after you prepare food.

Before you eat and after you use the bathroom.

After handling animals or animal waste.

More frequently when someone in your home is sick.

When soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers.

Alcohol-based sanitizers are so effective that the Centers for Disease Control has recommended them as an alternative to traditional soap-and-water hand washing in hospitals.

While alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers kill germs, they do not remove dirt, so be sure to wash visibly dirty hands with soap and water.

Fewer sick days

A study published in 2000 in the American Journal of Infection Control found that elementary school students who practiced proper hand hygiene missed fewer days of school than their counterparts who failed to do so.

If you need more reasons to wash your hands regularly, look no further than the following sobering statistic: A 2003 observational survey sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology found that more than 26 percent of people who used restrooms in five U.S. airports failed to wash their hands afterward.

Even if you're among the three out of four who do wash regularly, you're sharing doorknobs, desks and other surfaces with those who don't. It's enough to make you - and everyone else around you - sick.

Dr. Bob Wilmott is chief of pediatrics at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital and is a professor of pediatric medicine at St. Louis University School of Medicine. If you have a child health question for Dr. Wilmott, go to the "Ask Dr. Bob" section of the Cardinal Glennon Web site at www.cardinalglennon.com.