Hand disinfection in day-to-day routine
Hygiene experts all agree: It is not fundamentally necessary to use disinfectant in our day-to-day lives. “If you’re healthy and in a healthy environment, handwashing with soap is sufficient,” says Prof. Dr. med. Klaus-Dieter Zastrow, a specialist in hygiene and environmental medicine and Head of the REGIOMED-KLINIKEN hygiene institute in Coburg. However, disinfectants can be a good idea if you regularly come into contact with different people such as is the case in large offices and retail situations or when you are in contact with sick people. Whenever you visit a hospital, you should disinfect your hands on entering and leaving the ward.
Hand disinfection: When is it important?
In public facilities, businesses or areas in which particularly high demands are placed on hygiene, e.g., in the hospitality sector and the foodstuffs industry, the use of hand disinfection is recommended as a supplement to regular handwashing and the observation of general safety precautions. Hygienic hand disinfection is even mandatory in the healthcare sector. Suitable disinfectant solutions render influenza viruses harmless within 15-30 seconds, for example, and can also be made available in public and corporate washrooms.
Hygienic hand disinfection: It’s that simple!
Squirt the specified quantity (based on the manufacturer’s instructions on the packaging) onto your hand and massage the disinfectant thoroughly into your hands.
Rub your right palm over your back of your left hand and left palm over the back of your right hand.
Rub your palms together with your fingers spread.
Rub the outsides of your fingers against the opposite palm with your fingers interlaced.
Massage the product into your right and left thumb.
With your fingertips together rub them into the opposite palm.