Hand-Care: How to Keep Your Hands Safe and Clean

For generations, hand-washing with soap and water has been considered an important measure of personal hygiene.

The concept of cleansing hands with an antiseptic agent probably emerged in the early 19th Century − in as early as 1822 a French pharmacist demonstrated that solutions containing chlorides of lime and soda could eradicate the foul odours associated with human corpses, and thus was used as disinfectants and antiseptics.

In fact, studies carried out in the late 19th Century concluded that the spread of infections were significantly reduced by observing good hand-hygiene practices, something that has gradually been accepted as one of the most important measures for preventing transmissions of pathogens in healthcare settings.

Infectious diseases circulating in the home and community remain a significant concern to healthcare professionals today, with good hand hygiene continuing to be a key component of good hygiene practice in the home and community. This can provide significant benefits in terms of reducing infections, including stomach upsets, respiratory tract infections and skin infections.

It’s incredibly quick and easy to decontaminate hands by hand-washing regularly, using soap or waterless hand sanitizers.

When washing hands with soap and water:

Wet hands first with water
Apply the recommended amount of soap to hands
Rub hands together vigorously for at least 15 seconds, covering all surfaces of the hands and fingers
Rinse hands thoroughly to remove all soap
Dry hands with disposable single use towels, making sure all skin and spaces between fingers are thoroughly dried without excessive friction

If using an alcohol based hand gel/foam follow the manufacturers guidelines.

However, anyone who regularly washes their hands will be aware that repeated and frequent use of hand hygiene products is one of the primary causes of irritant contact dermatitis and can compromise your skins natural barrier function, leaving hands dry and irritated.

Hand irritations can be avoided by selecting hand-hygiene products with low irritancy potential and by performing hand hygiene before and after wearing medical gloves. Hands should also be regularly hydrated and protected using a lotion, moisturiser or cream. Care should be taken to check the moisturiser is compatible with hand hygiene products − for example, hydrocarbon based products are not compatible with natural rubber latex or synthetic polyisoprene gloves. Brosch Direct sell a fantastic range of moisturisers that have been selected for use in healthcare settings.

A moisturiser containing therapeutic glycerine is ideal, and water based lotions are fine to wear with latex gloves. Highly fragranced, over the counter products are not recommended for use in medical settings.