Surface Hygiene: Good hand hygiene is a primary strategy for reducing the spread of infectious agents through contact and feces to the mouth. Concerns have been expressed regarding the development of antiseptic resistance and the harm to the skin barrier caused by frequent washing due to the widespread use of antimicrobial products.
The evidence for the connection between infection and good skin hygiene, the effects of washing on the integrity of the skin, and skincare practices are all examined in this article.
Does cleansing the skin lower the likelihood of infection?
Since more than a century ago, proper skin and hand hygiene have been recognized as the most important means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The causal link between infectious disease transmission and contaminated hands is one of the clinical science phenomenon well-documented phenomena. However, a number of recent events have necessitated a reexamination of skin hygiene and its practical application.
In industrialized nations, changes in sociologic patterns have increased exposure to infectious risks, such as the use of commercially prepared food and child care services. Environmental sanitation and public health services are generally satisfactory, despite room for improvement.
Washing and bathing oneself:
Over time, an improvement in society’s general cleanliness is clearly linked to improved health. Using causal inference, historical and cross-cultural evidence, and personal hygiene, Greene established a link between improved health and better health. But other things have changed at the same time, like better public services, how to dispose of waste, where water comes from, how commercial food is handled, and nutrition. It’s hard to measure how much personal hygiene has helped control infectious diseases over the past century.
Studies of personal and domestic hygiene and its connection to diarrhea in developing countries demonstrate the efficacy of proper waste disposal, general sanitary conditions, and hand washing. Except for hand washing, specific evidence to link bathing or general skin cleansing with infection prevention is lacking.
In surgical or other high-risk patients, antiseptic showers have been tested to see if they reduce postoperative wound infections. These agents decrease the number of microorganisms on the skin, unlike standard soaps. In some studies, antiseptic preoperative showers or baths were found to lower postoperative infection rates, while in others, there was no correlation.
Whole-body washing newborns with a detergent that contains chlorhexidine has been shown to reduce the number of infections, but this should not be done frequently due to safety and absorption concerns. In a number of studies, rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus acquisition have been shown to significantly decrease in surgical patients bathed with a triclosan-containing product. As a result, in some patient populations, antiseptic bathing or showering prior to surgery may be justified.
Hand Hygiene for the Public at Large:
The majority of the current evidence points to a causal relationship between the risk of infection in community settings and hand washing in industrialized nations. Although many of these studies may have been limited by other variables’ confounding, there is strong evidence that hand washing is important for infection prevention. Reviews of studies that have found that washing one’s hands reduce the risk of infection have recently been published.
The most convincing benefit of hand washing for the general public is the prevention of infectious agents that are either temporarily found on hands or that is transmitted via the fecal-oral route or the respiratory tract. For this reason, simple soaps are thought to be sufficient.
Hand Hygiene in Hospitals and Clinics:
The hand hygiene practices of healthcare professionals have been the subject of extensive discussion, and it’s possible that they are even more involved than those of the general public. Unless the care of a patient involves invasive procedures or prolonged contact with blood and body fluids, current guidelines recommend washing one’s hands with plain soap. However, the use of antiseptic products may further reduce infection rates during surgery or in adult or neonatal intensive care units.
