COVID-19. Gloves? Better to wash your hands often. that's how
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COVID-19. Wash your hands often. is one of the essential precautions contained in the Decalogue of the Ministry of Health. A gesture that we are all used to but we tend to execute hastily. Instead, accuracy is needed, to ensure adequate cleaning and hygiene - also essential to inactivate the coronavirus, which as seen it has a good persistence - with a very precise mechanical action. Following is the vademecum of the Ministry of Health. (1) What about gloves? They are not always useful, at least not for everyone.
COVID-19. Wash your hands often. Here's when and how
Is critical wash your hands
▶️ before:
- to eat,
- handle or consume food,
- take (or administer) drugs,
- dressing or touching a wound,
- apply or remove contact lenses,
- use the bathroom,
- change a diaper,
- touch a sick person.
▶ ️ after:
- coughing, sneezing or nose blowing,
- close contact with people positive for the virus,
-contact with animals,
- use of the bathroom,
- change of a diaper,
- contact with raw foods, especially meat, fish, poultry and eggs,
- handling of garbage, money,
- use of any means of transport (bus, taxi, car, etc.),
- stay in crowded places.
How to wash your hands?
▶ Soap and water, 60 seconds washing. There are 12 steps to follow to wash your hands in a workmanlike manner. An exercise to try live, to learn it and dedicate the right time to this fundamental operation. Until it becomes a habit. So:
1) wet your hands well with water,
2) apply a sufficient amount of soap to cover the entire surface of the hands,
3) rub your hands well palm against palm,
4) rub the left palm over the right back by interlacing the fingers together and vice versa,
5) rub the back of the fingers against the opposite palm keeping the fingers tightly together,
6) rub your hands palm to palm back and forth by intertwining the fingers of the right hand crossed with those of the left,
7) rub the right thumb keeping it tight in the palm of the left hand and vice versa,
8) rub back and forth by rotating the fingers of the right hand tightly together in the palm of the left hand and vice versa,
9) rub the wrist by rotating back and forth the fingers of the right hand tightened together on the left wrist and repeat for the right wrist,
10) rinse your hands thoroughly with water,
11) dry your hands thoroughly with a disposable towel,
12) use the disposable wipe to turn off the tap.
▶ ️ Hydro-alcoholic solution, 30 seconds and 8 phases:
1) pour into the palm of the hand a quantity of solution sufficient to cover the entire surface of the hands,
2) rub your hands palm on palm,
3) rub the left palm over the right back by interlacing the fingers together and vice versa,
4) rub well palm on palm,
5) rub the backs of the hands well with your fingers,
6) rub the right thumb, keeping it tight in the palm of the left hand, and vice versa,
7) rub back and forth by rotating the fingers of the right hand, held together in the palm of the left hand, and vice versa,
8) rub the wrist, rotating the fingers of the right hand tightly together on the left wrist back and forth, and vice versa.
Hand care
Not only for aesthetic reasons but also to protect the skin - which is important to keep elastic, also to prevent cracking - you must also take care of your hands.
To relieve stress of continuous washing, it is advisable to apply a cream or a lotion every day . Even just a little extra virgin olive oil, before going to sleep.
Then it is necessary avoid washing your hands with soap just before or after using an alcohol-based cleaner.
And the gloves? Not for all
Professor Pier Luigi Lopalco - epidemiologist, professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pisa - has recently clarified how gloves are not in themselves useful in preventing coronavirus infection. Not for everyone at least.
Gloves 'not only are they useless, they can be counterproductive: I can wash my hands, gloves or I throw them away every minute or they get dirty and can carry the infection'. (2)
WHO in turn, in one of the many brochures dedicated to the prevention of contagion from COVID-19, he explains how the use of gloves outside the home is not sufficient to prevent contagion. (3) Since they can become contaminated and become vectors of transmission, if with them the eyes, nose and mouth are touched. It is therefore preferable for the general population to wash their hands often following the instructions indicated.
Martina Novelli and Dario Dongo
Note
(1) Ministry of Health,
(2) Ipse dixit Professor Pier Luigi Lopalco at the Agorà broadcast, on Rai Tre, on 13.3.20
(3) OMS.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
