Focus on Hygiene
There is a strong link between health and hygiene. The cleaning experts at the UK Cleaning Products Industry Association offer ten simple tips for good home hygiene:
- The number one tip when there’s illness about is to make it hard for germs to get into your body. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth with your hands unless you’ve just washed them.
- Wash your hands thoroughly and often. The International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH)* says: "Current WHO and ECDC recommendations on measures to reduce the spread of influenza are based on the supposition that influenza mainly spreads from person-to-person by large droplets from an infected person coughing and sneezing, and by contact transmission.".
- In the home, change towels frequently and avoid sharing towels. Consider washing laundry such as towels, handkerchiefs and bed linen at 60oC if someone is unwell.
- Keep kitchen work surfaces scrupulously clean – especially wet areas such as the sink, draining board and taps.
- Don’t muddle kitchen utensils used for raw and cooked meats and poultry. Wash all knives and chopping boards thoroughly with detergent and hot water after use.
- It is all too easy to forget to clean some parts of the home that don’t seem obvious: remember to be scrupulous about cleaning taps as well as wash-basins; lavatory flush handles/buttons as well as the loo itself; light-switches – with a dry cloth only; and door-handles. All these can harbour germs which may be transferred from one person to another.
- Dispose of paper tissues hygienically and quickly and wash bins thoroughly.
- Don’t just think of wiping down surfaces often – consider what you are using. Wet surfaces harbour bacteria and so a used dishcloth that already contains bacteria will just spread or reintroduce germs rather than cleaning them up. The advice is wash cloths and sponges thoroughly between uses and change them often.
- If you have pets in the home, make sure that you clean up areas used by them and always wash your hands after contact – and make sure children know this too
- When you get better after suffering from illness remember to change bed-sheets and pillowslips as well as thoroughly cleansing personal items such as tooth-brushes to avoid reintroducing infection.
Notes
*Source – IFH http://www.ifh-homehygiene.org/