Yuck! Wash Those Hands!

Since my cancer diagnosis, I've become something of a germ freak.

I open door knobs with my sleeve, use my own pen to sign checks at the grocery store, and look at my children with newly suspicious eyes: What germs are they incubating to pass on to me? Sadly, we can no longer share bites off the same spoon.

I have my own hand towel and drinking cup in the bathroom. I carry hand sanitizer in my purse.

In public restrooms, I wash my hands properly, lathering for about 30 seconds, then rinse, and turn off the water tap (germs!) with a paper towel. I also use a paper towel to open the restroom door.

I'm especially diligent when I'm at the hospital (all those sick people, plus who knows what kind of supergerms are incubating at your local hospital?), which is why this report from Reuters is so dismaying:

No quick fix for dirty hands in hospitals: study

Not only are health-care workers NOT washing their hands, but various strategies hospitals have tried to get these folks to wash their hands HAVE NOT WORKED. They are not teachable, the research concludes.

So let me get this straight: Hospitals are full of high-tech medical equipment, expensive drugs, and highly trained personnel. But, because health-care workers are not washing their hands, their dirty hands are infecting about 5 percent of patients in the United States at a cost of $4.5 billion a year, according to the research.

The problem is apparently even worse in the United Kingdom, where 10 percent of patients develop health care-associated infections.

Guess I'll start offering my bottle of hand sanitizer to the folks who care for me.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.