Washing hands can keep you healthy and prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrheal infections from one person to the next. Germs can spread from other people or surfaces when you: Touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. Never prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands.
How to Wash your hands:
If soap and water aren’t available and your hands already look clean, you can use a hand sanitiser to help kill the germs on your hands.
Are alcohol solutions the only solution for COVID 19?
Considering there are no clinical trials for the use of alcohol with Covid 19 it becomes an educational discussion rather than an evidence-based solution.
Alcohol-based hand sanitisers are thought to work by preventing the proteins of microbes—including bacteria and some viruses—from functioning normally. Hand sanitisers with a high alcohol content might also interfere with the lipid shell surrounding the coronavirus.
To be effective, hand sanitisers must contain at least 60 percent alcohol (Ethanol).
The higher alcohol content is not automatically more effective. The water in the sanitiser can keep the alcohol from evaporating too fast, allowing the virus to be drenched for longer.
The below list of antiseptic active ingredients has been considered by WHO as eligible or ineligible in each of the five health care antiseptic uses: Patient preoperative skin preparation, Health care personnel hand wash, Health care personnel hand rub, Surgical hand scrub, and Surgical hand rub.
| Active ingredient | Patient preoperative skin preparation | Health care personnel hand wash | Health care personnel hand rub | Surgical hand scrub | Surgical hand rub |
| Alcohol 60 to 95 percent | 2 Y | 3 N | Y | N | Y |
| Benzalkonium chloride | Y | Y | Y | Y | N |
| Benzethonium chloride | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Chlorhexidine gluconate | N | N | N | N | N |
| Chloroxylenol | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Cloflucarban | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Fluorosalan | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Hexylresorcinol | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Iodine Active Ingredients: | |||||
| Iodine complex (ammonium ether sulfate and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate) | N | Y | N | Y | N |
| Iodine complex (phosphate ester of alkylaryloxy polyethylene glycol) | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Iodine tincture USP | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Iodine topical solution USP | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Nonylphenoxypoly (ethyleneoxy) ethanoliodine | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Poloxamer-iodine complex | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Povidone-iodine 5 to 10 percent | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Undecoylium chloride iodine complex | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Isopropyl alcohol 70-91.3 percent | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| Mercufenol chloride | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Methylbenzethonium chloride | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Phenol (less than 1.5 percent) | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Phenol (greater than 1.5 percent) | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Secondary amyltricresols | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Sodium oxychlorosene | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Triclocarban | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Triclosan | Y | Y | N | Y | N |
| Combinations: | |||||
| Calomel, oxyquinoline benzoate, triethanolamine, and phenol derivative | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Mercufenol chloride and secondary amyltricresols in 50 percent alcohol | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Triple dye | Y | N | N | N | N |
| 2 Y = Eligible for specified use. | |||||
| 3 N = Ineligible for specified use. | |||||
PPE includes items such as gloves, gowns, masks, respirators, and eyewear used to create barriers that protect skin, clothing, mucous membranes, and the respiratory tract from infectious agents. PPE is used as a last resort when work practices and engineering controls alone cannot eliminate worker exposure. The items selected for use depend on the type of interaction a public health worker will have with a client and the likely modes of disease transmission.
Wear gloves when touching blood, body fluids, non-intact skin, mucous membranes, and contaminated items. Gloves must always be worn during activities involving vascular access, such as performing phlebotomies.
Wear a surgical mask and goggles or face shield if there is a reasonable chance that a splash or spray of blood or body fluids may occur to the eyes, mouth, or nose.
Wear a gown if skin or clothing is likely to be exposed to blood or body fluids.
Remove PPE immediately after use and wash hands. It is important to remove PPE in the proper order to prevent contamination of skin or clothing.
If PPE or other disposable items are saturated with blood or body fluids such that fluid may be poured, squeezed, or dripped from the item, discard into a biohazard bag. PPE that is not saturated may be placed directly in the trash. Saturated waste generated from the home should be placed in sealable leak-proof plastic bags before placing in regular trash bags for disposal.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause respiratory infections. These can range from the common cold to more serious diseases.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by a new coronavirus. It was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan City in China.
Other coronaviruses include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly.
People with coronavirus may experience:
There is no treatment for COVID-19, but medical care can treat most of the symptoms.
Antibiotics do not work on viruses.
You must self-isolate if any of the following applies to you:
