Swine Flu Prevention Through Hand Washing

As I've said, washing your hands (along with staying away from public areas) is the most effective way to prevent swine flu infection.  Hand washing not only prevents infection from swine flu, but as we've all been taught from a young age, a host of other infections.  So, whether there is the threat of swine flu or not, it is always good to maintain the proper hand washing habits.  There is a great site here that goes over many of the basics, but I'll summarize:

• Wash with soap (antibacterial soap is not necessary) and water or an alcohol based sanitizer
  
• Antimicrobial wipes are just as effective as soap. It would be an excellent idea to carry these types of wipes or alcohol based sanitizer with you at all times, especially when going to areas affected by the swine flu virus
  
• If you are using alcohol based hand sanitizer make sure it is more than 60% alcohol, otherwise it won't be as effective for killing germs and diseases
  

They also offer some good advice for how to wash your hands:

• Wet your hands with warm water and apply soap
• Rub your hands together vigorously for 15 to 20 seconds (that's longer than you think, use the happy birthday rule).
• Scrub all surfaces including in between your fingers, the back of your hand, wrists, and under your finger nails.  
• Rinse well
• Dry your hands with a clean, disposible towel
• Use that same towel to turn off the faucet

Remember, all of these techniques are for your own benefit.  Maybe you've considered it a chore to wash your hands in the proper way until now, but when you are faced with a possiblely deadly flu outbreak, you shouldn't hesistate to spend a good amount of time in front of the sink each time you wash.  And of course, wash your hands as often as possible.

Moving on to hand sanitizers, alcohol based sanitizers are actually MORE effective than traditional soap when used properly.  Just make sure that the sanitizer is alcohol based and meets the CDC requirement of 60% alcohol.  Use the following steps:

• Apply around 1/2 a teaspoon to your hand
• Cover all surfaces of your hand including all those listed above (don't forget your wrists, they are exposed just as much as your hand to viruses)

Now that swine flu is spreading, it is also a good idea to increase the frequency with which you wash your hands.  Do it before you eat, after you go to the bathroom, after you've been near sick people, after going to public places.  It would also be a good idea to avoid hand to mouth contact if you haven't washed your hand just prior to it. 

If you follow all of the above advice, you should be able to stay safe and healthy and most importantly, free from swine flu. 

If any one has recommendations for the site, please let me know in the comments section.  Due to the nature of pandemic, I'm trying to put as much information up here as quickly as possible so people can have a good resource to turn to for the lastest advice and developments relating to swine flu.  I'd love to hear what you'd like to know.  Thanks!