With increasing Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) cases around the world, washing hands with soap is one of the most important advice the health experts give to help people stay safe from the virus.
Washing hands with soap is one of the simplest and quickest ways a person can adopt to keep the disease at bay. Likewise, peoples’ awareness about the power of washing hands in the country is growing. And this is evident from shopkeepers in the capital installing temporary handwashing facilities to encourage people to wash hands.
A temporary handwashing station is a new change in the vegetable market in Thimphu. This, they say, is to encourage and remind people to wash hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“We used to wash hands only occasionally like before and after eating. But these days after hearing about the coronavirus, we are and have been extra careful to wash our hands after and before doing anything and then apply sanitizers. And we also have put up a small tippy tap for people to wash their hands along with soaps so that everyone is safe,” said Thinley, a Shopkeeper in Thimphu.
“I haven’t seen people washing hands that frequently. But after the coronavirus outbreak, the handwashing trend has drastically improved. And that’s why we have initiated to put up handwashing facility. In rural areas, we have heard the trend of washing hands has picked up. We have also learnt that frequently washing hands is more effective than using sanitizer,” added Thinley Dema, also a Shopkeeper.
As hands are the main pathways of germ transmission, hand hygiene is the most important measure to avoid germ transmission and prevent diseases. According to health officials, washing hands with soap and water is the most powerful weapon against the spread of the virus.
“Handwashing is supposed to be one of the best public health interventions. It’s not only just now for coronavirus but any communicable diseases like diarrhoea, one of the common ones and flu. Hands are the most important things in doing any basic things so you touch surfaces of the tables, doorknobs and hands are basically full of germs which we basically don’t see but the thing is that these hands carry a lot of germs. That’s why it’s important that we wash our hands properly,” said Dr Karma Lhazeen, the Director of the Dept of Public Health at the Health Ministry.
Despite the fact that proper handwashing is critical in preventing the spread of germs, international studies have found that 95 per cent of the people do it the wrong way and most of them don’t use soap while washing. For effective handwashing, the World Health Organization recommends following the seven steps. First, one has to wet hands with running water and apply the soap. After that lather both hands including the back of the hands, between fingers and under nails for at least 20 seconds before rinsing and drying.
And recently, Vox Media, an American digital media company uploaded a video on how soap kills coronavirus. For demonstration, they ordered a lotion that mimicked virus which glowed under the ultraviolet light. When a person just rinsed hand under regular water, nothing came off. And after a person washed hands for just five or ten seconds, the hands were still covered and the virus was still there. But twenty full seconds of properly washing hands, the soap destroys the virus.
Thus, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, a leading national public health institute of the United States, recommends properly washing hands with soap to fight COVID-19.
Sonam Pem
