ScienceToday

You could be contributing to antibiotic resistance

As I have said previously, washing your hands is a vital step in staying away from an infection, so doing it frequently can reduce the number of infections that are spread. Those infections are usually treated with antibiotics.

The CDC reports that handwashing can prevent about one-third of diarrhea-related illnesses and about one-fifth of respiratory infections. Additionally, it can also reduce by almost 60 percent of the spread of diarrhea-related illnesses in people who have a weaker immune system.

Fewer infections mean less widespread antibiotic treatment. We all know that the overuse of antibiotics can cause antibiotic resistance. All in all, make sure to wash your hands in order to prevent the spread of severe illnesses that aren’t so easy to treat, from germs that have already become resistant to antibiotics.

You could be relying on hand sanitizer too much

Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes play their part, but they shouldn’t be used as an option for not washing your hands. According to Dr. Whitney, it’s not just the soap that kills the pathogens on your hands. “The additional mechanical action of lathering and the friction of rubbing your hands together and washing away the germs and debris is what makes handwashing more effective,” he says. “However, handwashing needs to be done properly, which means lathering with enough soap and scrubbing for at least 20 seconds.”