The term “sanitation” is most often used in reference to cleaning the hands. Hand washing is absolutely essential to controlling bacteria and the most effective way to prevent the spread of infectious agents from one person to another . Hands cannot be sterilized, because it is impossible to remove all microorganisms from the surface of the skin. Water and soap, in fact, are not sterile and can introduce new bacteria and infectious agents. Sanitation will reduce germs on a surface but will not kill all organisms. Your hands are populated by both resident and transient organisms. Resident organisms are a normal part of your skin’s environment - their natural habitat. They grow and multiply in an oxygenated environment and rarely cause infection or harm the individual who is their host. These organisms cannot be removed easily by hand washing. Sanitation controls minimize exposure to transient organisms. These organisms, like E. coli and salmonella, cause dangerous infections in humans. In contrast to resident organisms, transient organisms cannot live long on the surface of our skin. They function poorly in an oxygen environment, usually surviving less than 24 hours. Fortunately, these organisms can be removed easily through the process of hand washing, using friction, soap and water. Wash your hands Hand washing is like a “do-it- yourself” vaccine. It’s the best way
(http://www.health.state.mn.us/handhygiene/wash/fsgermbuster.html) Hand washing: The beginning of infection control Over 16 years ago, Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, first demonstrated that hand hygiene can prevent the spread of disease. Hand hygiene, as a practice, includes performing hand washing using antiseptic hand wash or alcohol-based hand rub and/or surgical hand hygiene/antisepsis. Dr. Semmelweis worked in a hospital in Vienna whose maternity patients were dying at such an alarming rate of puerperal fever (or childbed fever) that they begged to be sent home. Most of those dying had been treated by student physicians who worked on corpses during an anatomy class before beginning their rounds in the maternity ward. Hand washing was an unrecognized hygienic practice at the time. Because the students did not wash their hands effectively between touching the dead and the living, pathogenic bacteria (Sommelweis called them “cadaverous particles” or little pieces of the corpse) from the dead bodies were regularly transmitted to the mothers via the students’ hands. The result was a death rate five times higher for mothers who delivered in the clinic attended by the students than for mothers who delivered at another clinic. In an experiment considered quaint at best by his colleagues, Dr. Semmelweis insisted that his students wash their hands before treating the mothers – and deaths on the maternity ward fell fivefold. Unquestioned today as the most important tool in the health care worker’s arsenal for preventing infection , hand washing was not readily accepted in Dr. Semmelweis’s era. His pleas to make hand washing a routine practice throughout the hospital were largely met with derision. Another 50 years would pass before the importance of hand washing as a preventive measure would be widely accepted by the medical profession. Sanitation is now a standard and thousands of lives have been saved because of Dr. Semmelweis’s discovery. Cleaning agents for the hands Cleaning agents assist in the process of removing substances from surfaces. Soaps and detergents are two common cleaning agents that are often confused for one another, but are composed of very different ingredients, with different cleaning properties. Soaps are the product of a chemical reaction. They can be formed by vegetable oil reacting with lye or chemicals. These chemicals, such as glycerin, add a desirable smell or quality to the soap and make it milder. While soap does not kill microorganisms, soap and water will help remove them from surfaces. On the other hand, detergents are manufactured for the express purpose of cleaning specific substances off specific items and are created using chemicals that can be very harsh to skin. In contrast to detergents that do not leave a residue or require rinsing, soaps leave a coating or residue on the body, typically one designed to make skin smoother or more attractive. Soaps also remove less fat from the skin than detergents. Removing fat from the skin has a drying quality and may strip the skin, therefore the use of detergents can dry skin out.
to prevent infection and illness . It involves five simple and effective steps: Wet, lather, scrub, rinse, and dry. Regular handwashing, particularly before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others.
(http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/) Clean hands prevent infections, and keeping hands clean prevents illness at home, at school, and at work. Hand hygiene practices are key prevention tools in healthcare and human services settings, in daycare facilities, in schools and public institutions, and for the safety of our food. In health care settings, hand washing can prevent potentially fatal infections from spreading from patient to patient, from patient to health care worker, and vice-versa. The basic rule in the hospital is to cleanse hands before and after each patient contact by either washing hands or using an alcohol-based hand rub. The same is true for salons, cosmetologists, and their clients. Wash your hands, the right way! When washing hands with soap and water: ● Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if it is available. ● Rub hands together to produce lather and scrub all surfaces. ● Continue rubbing hands for 15-20 seconds. Need a timer? Imagine singing “Happy Birthday” twice through to a friend. ● Rinse hands well under running water. ● Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet. ● Always use soap and water if your hands are visibly dirty. ● If soap and clean water are not available, use an alcohol- based hand rub to clean your hands. Alcohol-based hand rubs significantly reduce the number of germs on skin and are fast-acting. When using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer: ● Apply product to the palm of one hand. ● Rub hands together briskly. ● Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.
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Book Code: EFL1024
EliteLearning.com/Cosmetology
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