Hand washing is best defense against colds, flu and food-borne illness

With the cold and flu season in full swing and holiday travel stirring up the pot of infectious diseases, a simple, yet often-overlooked act might just keep you healthy and on your feet this winter. Simply put, hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the spread of both viral and bacterial infections. Disease-carrying microbes can spread from person to person by people touching one another. They also can be transmitted when a person touches a contaminated surface and then touches his or her mouth, eyes or nose. Good hand-washing techniques include using an adequate amount of soap and water, rubbing hands together to create friction, and rinsing under running water. The use of gloves is not a substitute for hand washing. In addition to merely washing your hands, understanding the nature of infections is important.

The common cold The common cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract - the nose, nasal passages and the throat. There are more than 200 viruses that can cause colds. Cold symptoms usually show up about two days after a person becomes infected. Early signs of a cold are a sore, scratchy throat, sneezing, and a runny nose. Other symptoms that may occur later include headache, stuffy nose, watery eyes, hacking cough, chills, and general ill-feeling lasting from two to seven days. Some cases may last for two weeks. Colds are really not very contagious, compared to other infectious diseases. Close personal and prolonged contact is necessary for the cold viruses to spread. The viruses must get into the nose where they can infect the nasal membranes. The virus must attach to nasal cells after which the viruses can multiply. Inhaling contaminated droplets produced when someone else coughs or sneezes may be one way to catch a cold. Cold viruses can remain infective even if they are outside the body for a few hours. You can catch a cold if you handle something that is contaminated with a cold virus and then touch the inside of your nose or rub your eyes. People are most infective or more likely to be able to pass on a cold around two days after they were infected. This is when the first signs of a cold (sneezing, runny nose and cough) appear. People can cough or sneeze out in droplets of mucus containing the cold virus. People can also spread the cold virus on their fingers when they contaminate them with nasal secretions (for example, someone blows their nose and then shakes hands with someone else, who, in turn, rubs his or her eyes). You cannot cure a cold but you can help protect yourself from getting a cold by following good personal hygiene practices: • washing hands properly and frequently • covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing • wiping noses using disposable tissues in a way that secretions are contained by the tissue without contaminating the hands • avoiding rubbing the eyes with dirty hands • avoiding nail biting (especially important for infections that are transmitted orally) A healthy diet and getting sufficient sleep are also important in helping to prevent colds. Our immune system is also affected by stress. Studies have shown that people are more susceptible to getting colds after times of psychological stress.

Influenza Influenza, commonly called “the flu”, is a contagious disease caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract, including nose, throat, and lungs. Influenza causes severe illness and life-threatening complications in many people. Flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue. Most people who get the flu recover completely. However, some people, especially the elderly and those with chronic health problems, can develop serious complications. These include pneumonia and aggravation of pre-existing medical conditions such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes. Influenza viruses mainly are spread from person to person through droplets produced while coughing or sneezing. Droplets of an infected person are propelled by coughing and sneezing into the air and are deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby. This droplet transmission of the flu is a kind of contact transmission. Flu viruses can also be transmitted by indirect contact by touching a contaminated object or surface and then touching your own mouth, eyes or nose before washing your hands. Viruses can survive on surfaces for up to eight hours- longer on hard, impermeable surfaces than on porous surfaces. Influenza can be prevented by annual vaccination. Public health experts recommend the influenza vaccine for the following people: • Adults and children with chronic heart or lung disease. • People of any age who are residents of nursing homes and other chronic care facilities. • People over the age of 65 years. • People with chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and kidney disease. The vaccine is also recommended for people who are capable of transmitting influenza to those at high risk, e.g., health care workers and those providing essential community services. Anyone wishing to protect themselves against influenza should also consider vaccination even if they are not in a high risk group. To prevent the transmission of influenza use the following hygiene practices: • Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing. • Use tissues to contain respiratory droplets. • Wash hands after contact with respiratory droplets and contaminated objects. Frequent hand washing with is always a good idea.

Food-borne illness Bacteria that cause food-borne illness are everywhere – in the air, soil, water and in human and animal digestive tracts – so it’s easy for busy hands to pick them up. In the process of performing numerous cooking tasks, your hands also touch the counter, cutting board, utensils, pots, pans and dishes. So if your hands are not clean, they can spread bacteria far and wide. Thorough hand washing helps protect you, your family and others from illness. Washing your hands for at least 20 seconds helps remove bacteria, prevent its spread and the possible contamination of food products. It’s especially important to wash your hands before and after preparing food, before eating, after using the bathroom, blowing your nose or handling pets, diapers, garbage or raw food. Wash your hands more frequently when you or someone in your home is ill. Here is an effective way to wash you hands: • Wet your hands with very warm water. Apply liquid soap or use clean bar soap. Both antimicrobial and plain soap are effective. • Rub your hands together vigorously for 20 seconds and be careful to clean all surfaces including finger tips, around nails and under rings. The combination of soap, warm water and scrubbing action helps remove the dirt and bacteria. • Dry your hands with an air dryer or a clean towel.

Because it is a simple step that everyone can take, hand washing may be the best method of preventing illness and keeping us healthy.

In order to help citizens understand more clearly many of the environmental health issues in Ravalli County and the role of the Environmental Health Department in addressing these issues, our department will run a series of weekly newspaper articles titled “Environmental Health Talk.” In this ongoing series we hope to help raise the community’s awareness of issues such as air and water quality and give readers useful tips on topics like recycling, collecting and disposing of hazardous materials and maintaining septic systems, just to name a few. To this end, we welcome pubic comment. If there’s an environmental health issue you’d like us to address, write call or email the department: RCEH, c/o “EnviroHealth Talk,” 215 South 4th St, Suite D, Hamilton MT 59840. Phone: 375-6571. Email: [email protected]