Cleaning your hands properly, also called “hand hygiene” is one of the most important ways to avoid getting infected or giving someone an infection like the common cold, flu, and hard to treat infections such as methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Clean your hands before
- Preparing or eating food (use soap and water)
- Touching your eyes, nose, or mouth
- Treating a cut or wound (Use alcohol rub)
- Caring for someone who is sick
- Visiting someone in a hospital room
Clean your hands after
- Going to the bathroom (Use soap and water)
- Caring for someone sick
- Blowing your nose
- Coughing or sneezing
- Touching garbage
- Handling raw meat (Use soap and water)
- Handling animal waste (Use soap and water)
- Treating a cut or wound (Use alcohol rub)
- Leaving a hospital room
You can clean your hands with soap and water or an alcohol hand rub. Use soap and water when your hands look dirty. An alcohol hand rub does not require water to clean hands and kills most germs
To wash your hands with soap and water:
- Wet your hands using water that is a comfortable temperature.
- Rub your hands together to form lather. Rub all over your hands, in-between fingers, and under your finger nails.
- Rub your hands for 15 seconds. If you sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice, that is about 15 seconds.
- Rinse your hands well under running water.
- Dry your hands with a paper towel. Use the towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door if needed.
To clean your hands with an alcohol hand rub:
- Follow the directions on the bottle for how much to use.
- Rub your hands and the product all over your hands, in-between your fingers, and under the fingernails.
- Continue rubbing for 15 seconds until your hands are dry. Do not rinse your hands with water or dry them with a towel
