National day brings awareness to preventing sickness

As fall settles in and winter approaches, sicknesses increasingly affect people of all ages. Parents remind children to take their vitamins, bring hand sanitizer to school, wear warm clothing suited for the weather, and to stay away from people who are already down with a cold. But the simplest way to keep oneself healthy during these months of sickness is by washing one’s hands.

This year, Global Handwashing Day (Oct. 15) encourages people all over the world to model appropriate hand-washing behavior, and to remind others around them to wash their hands to keep themselves in good health.

Hannah Springer, ’19, recognizes that washing hands prevents germs from people spreading sickness. She says that it is also a social courtesy toward others.

“Washing your hands is not only a necessity, but a kind gesture towards your friends,” Springer said. “I wash my hands especially after I touch a sticky surface, and the excuse I would use for not doing it is because I’m too lazy. But to be honest, there isn’t an excuse to not wash your hands.

“I think the change in weather is also making kids sick,” Springer continued. “It’s gone from wet to dry, hot to cold in a matter of days, so the dramatic change in weather has really made people more vulnerable to falling ill.”

The following tweet contains an article showing even more ways to prevent sickness.

Frequent handwashing is one of several everyday preventive actions recommended to reduce the risk of getting or spreading #flu. Learn more at https://t.co/hQWH5zIhYq pic.twitter.com/ywmGiSjfAN

— CDC Flu (@CDCFlu) October 19, 2018

According to an article by The Atlantic, the weather itself does not make you sick, and the quick changes in the forecast do not lower your immune system. However, the cold virus replicates itself better in colder temperatures, therefore increasing exposure to the virus. When the weather drastically shifts, our bodies struggle to adapt which can trigger an illness if we don’t wash our hands and stay sanitary.

Studies from many sources, such as Kaiser Permanente, show that hand-washing is the most important way to eliminate germs on one’s hands. Nearly everything one can handle carries bacteria, and some objects, including meat, garbage, or wounds, have the potential to make a person very sick.

Scott Bucher, chemistry and AP Calculus teacher at FCS, notices that more kids catch the flu and colds when they don’t wash their hands regularly.

“Your hands go everywhere, no matter what you do,” Bucher said. “They’re going to end up in your mouth sometime during the day, they’re going to touch your eyes, they’re going to touch other people. So if you have germs on your hands, you’re passing them on to everybody else. The thing that people don’t realize is that when something gets on your hands, it stays there for a lot longer than you expect.”

Washing hands before eating and cooking lowers the odds of catching food poisoning, influenza, Hepatitis A, and many more diseases. Diarrhea and pneumonia, which children under five are especially vulnerable to, is also preventable through hand washing.

Alice Teresa Cruz, a nurse who has worked eight years at Fresno Community Hospital, shares how washing ones hands is impactful to everybody around you.

“It is very important to wash your hands for at least 15 to 20 seconds,” Cruz said. “It’s not really the temperature of the water or the soap, what’s important is the friction that is used when washing and the time spent washing them. Microbes are on everything we use and touch, and hands are the number one way germs are spread.

“Some excuses little kids make are that they forgot to wash their hands or that it takes too much time,” Cruz continued. “Try to take the time to wash them, even when you’re in a hurry. You’re protecting other people when you do.”

You can support the Global Hand Washing Partnership, whose goal is to partner with diverse organizations and to promote general hand washing, by offering financial support.

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Mackenzie Beckworth can be reached via email and via Twitter.