When and How Often Should You Use Hand Sanitizer?

The Introduction

We always emphasize basic hygiene. We take specific measures to follow the necessary hygiene process, which may seem obvious but essential. Maintaining good personal hygiene levels ensure that you are protected against anything and everything that could make you ill. Washing hands with soap and water, taking a bath, brushing teeth, are some of our daily habits which if done right help preserve our overall health. These measures guard against unwanted bacteria and the germs around us. Out of all different forms of personal hygiene, hand hygiene is emphasized a lot these days, which is justifiable. 

We all know that we have been surrounded by some unprecedented circumstances brought about by  the coronavirus. Medical experts and healthcare professionals have declared the virus a threat as it is highly contagious.. Medical experts all around the globe have agreed to the fact that amongst the robust methods of personal hygiene, hand hygiene has to be strictly followed as an integral part of all the precautionary measures till there is a vaccine out for us. Therefore, washing hands regularly with soap and water followed by hand sanitizers is necessary to eliminate unwanted germs and viruses.

Your safety is in your own hands, so keep them clean!

In these uncertain times, self-isolation methods, social distancing, following the hand hygiene norms and so on have become the new normal. Out of all, medical agencies strictly prescribe maintaining hand hygiene since the hand becomes the most common pathway for transmission of germs. This is obvious because of the daily commute, unwanted gatherings, going out to markets for shopping, and so many instances like this when we contact others and may catch the virus unknowingly. Herein, germs can also spread with coughing, sneezing, and touching the mouth or the eyes more often.

We need to wash our hands to get rid of all types of disease-causing germs and microbes. Though soap and water solve our purpose, hand sanitizers are much more compatible and can be carried anywhere. Hand sanitizers make the germs quickly inactive on the skin, but we need to understand its usage in the right manner. So, let's know when and how often we should be using hand sanitizers and not overuse them.

When and how often to use hand sanitizers.

So here are instances you should be aware of considering the usage of hand sanitizers. They may include:

1) Applying hand sanitizers while daily commuting becomes necessary as your hands get exposed to the surroundings and you may not always find a place to wash your hands everywhere while travelling or being in public places.

2) Before and after touching familiar and unfamiliar surfaces that may have been touched by others too.

3) Hand sanitizers should be applied after touching the doorknobs, buttons, paper money or coins, or even after filling the fuel in your vehicle

4) The surfaces that you and family members come in contact with at home should be wiped off and appropriately cleaned with liquid sanitizers. Follow it with applying hand sanitizers for your hygiene.

5) It should be applied after touching surfaces such as elevator side supports, using them after you push the shopping cart around the store, or before and after visiting a friend in the hospital, and similar situations.

6) You should be ready to use it immediately after coughing or sneezing, or blowing your nose. 

7) Though in many of the regularly done activities, hand sanitizers can be used only if soap and water are unavailable. These include:

-Before and after having your daily meal, after throwing the waste and the trash

-After touching an animal, its feed or its debris.
-After certain activities such as opening and closing the doors more often, pushing and pulling the drawers, touching switches, touching keyboards while operating a PC, handling the trash while cleaning, constantly working on smartphones, shaking hands, and such like.

Note: 

Remember that you have to prefer soap and water in all the cases and use sanitizers if soap and water are not always available. However, you also have to ensure that you wash your hands properly after applying the hand sanitizer. 

Do your research work properly before getting yourself a hand sanitizer

Before stepping out of your homes to purchase hand sanitizers, you need to understand the mechanism and methodology for getting a useful one.

Alcohol-based sanitizers are more effective here as CDC recommends that there are studies to suggest that hand sanitizers with an alcohol concentration between 60-95% are highly effective in destroying the germs. Though it is to be noted that while the alcohol-based hand sanitizers make the germs inactive in a quick manner, they cannot always kill all types of germs, and hence their proper usage is necessary. 

To note that when we talk of alcohol-based sanitizers, there are gel hand sanitizers available that contain some typical combinations of isopropyl alcohol, ethanol (ethyl alcohol), or n-propanol. The gel hand sanitizers that comprise nearly 70% alcohol show their effectiveness after 30 seconds of application. 

Hand sanitizers may also be available in liquid or foam form that are generally applied on the hands to make infectious agents ineffective. Whatever the types maybe, hand sanitizers cannot be overused in any case, as it can also have harsh consequences.

Excessive use of anything is bad, remember that!

There are no questions asked about the existence of germs and viruses all around us. The questions have also become all the more prominent when it comes to coronavirus, and we all know that hand sanitizers are the answer to it. But solely relying on hand sanitizers is not needed for germ-killing. We all can stay germ-free and protected with proper hand washing as our priority.