DOCTORS in Bromsgrove are giving residents instructions on washing their hands and good hygiene in an effort to cut the spread of colds, flu and norovirus (sickness and diarrhoea).
County doctors say good hand hygiene is particularly important when visiting friends or relatives in hospital, the elderly at their home or when around very young children.
They say the best way to wash hands is with soap and warm water, paying attention to fingers, thumbs, under nails and wrists. Drying hands properly is just as important, as damp hands can harbour germs.
The following advice has been issued as part of the good hygiene advice:
• Covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and ensure you put it tissue in the bin straight away.
If you don’t have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow rather than your hands.
• Wash hands with soap and warm water – This will remove the majority of germs. Studies show that hand-washing techniques are often poor and the most commonly neglected areas are the tips of the fingers, palm of the hand, and the thumb.
• Use alcohol hand rub if you are visiting someone in hospital. This should be rubbed into all areas of the hands, particularly the thumbs, fingertips, between the fingers and the backs of the hands until the hands feel dry. However they say this won’t help with norovirus – soap and water is best.
