The dawn of the Coronavirus sent the global population into an extreme panic about hygiene. People wore gloves and masks out of fear of contracting the virus because our hands carry the most germs.
Long before Covid-19, people have been urinating in public. They do it behind bushes and trees or they splash their urine all over walls. And after a good pee, they often don’t wash their hands.
A Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study revealed that 69% of men don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom, while women sit at 35%. This shows a clear gender disparity in hygiene. Moreover, OneDesk added that twice as many men don’t wash their hands as women: 14.6% of men don’t wash their hands after bathroom use, compared to 7.1% of women. And, 35.1% of men don’t use soap when washing their hands, while women are at 15.1%.
An article by “Metro” explained why men fail to wash their hands after bathroom use. Most of them emphasised that their genitals are “clean”, they don’t touch the whole penis during urination – just the tip – and urine does not directly touch their hands; hence, they don’t see the need to wash their hands. Some said they wash their hands because of social conventions.
One man, *Chad Cleanshaft, said: “I wash my hands when they are dirty. I wash my hands after I wipe my butt, but I just don’t get the urge to sterilise my hands for simply having a close encounter with my penis.”
These alarming statistics raise concerns about the spread of germs, which is common, and the contracting of preventable hygiene-related diseases and the associated mortality rates. The CDC reported that over one million deaths, annually, are preventable when due diligence is taken in hand-washing – a full 30 seconds must be spent on hand-washing. Moreover, a person’s hands carry 3 200 different germs, belonging to more than 150 species, some of which are harmful. Thus, hand-washing deters the spread of foodborne illnesses, diarrhoeal diseases, such as salmonella, E. coli and norovirus and respiratory illnesses, such as the adenovirus and hand, foot and mouth disease.
The CDC highlighted the importance of educating the public about being cautious and practising proper hand-washing as it can reduce 16-21% of respiratory illnesses, diarrhoeal diseases in people with weak immune systems by 58% and the chance of people contracting diarrhoea by 23-40%.
Saturday Star