Newspaper Page Text
Health
It takes less than a minute,
and it's easily the best way to avoid the common cold, flu
and nasty stomach viruses. Yet, surveys show many people
still don't wash their hands as often as they should.
While 91 percent of Amencan adults say they always
wash after using a public restroom, only 83 percent actually
do so, according to a 2005 survey by the American Society
for Microbiology.
The findings are troubling to health care officials, who
say keeping your hands clean is the single most important
way to keep from getting sick and spreading illness.
“Hand washing greatly reduces the chance of getting a
cold or flu," says Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director
of the Amencan Public Health Association in Washington,
D.C. “For most of us, these illnesses are unpleasant. How
ever, for anyone with a compromised immune system or
undergoing chemotherapy, the very young or the elderly,
these diseases pose a serious health threat."
Throughout the day, hands collect viruses and bacteria
from touching people, contaminated surfaces, foods and ani
mals. Most germs are harmless, but others can cause colds,
influenza, ftxxl-related illnesses from E. coli and salmonella,
and even Heparitis A and meningitis.
Once you touch a germ-laden person or ob)ect, you can
r a ■
i *** -*'&
Pecan CakeJm
• "a
Pecan Cake j
- jT *
%)ple Cinnamon PecaWaW
Wash Your
Hands s
r jggspp*
Toll-Free: 800-292-7400
Mention Code 6 10511 to get your 1/4-lb. of coffee FREE!
www.CollinStreet.com
Also available online: a variety of mouth-watering
cheesecakes, old-fashioned homemade pies
and cakes, and more.
infect yourself by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. You
then can infect others by touching them or surfaces they also
touch such as doorknobs, faucets or money.
Effective hand washing is easy and requires only soap
and running water. When these aren't available, alcohol
based sanitizers and wipes are good alternatives. Health
officials say antibacterial soap is no better than regular soap
at killing germs.
To wash effectively, wet your hands and lather up widi
soap, rubbing for at least 15 seconds. When scrubbing,
include the wrists, backs of hands and between the fingers.
Rinse well and dry with a clean or disposable towel.
Among the times you should wash your hands are:
• After using the bathnxim or changing a diaper
• Before eating or preparing food
• After blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing
• Before and after treating a cut or wound.
• Before and after tending to a sick person
• After handling garbage
• After touching pets or other animals or cleaning
a cat litter box
Mon S. GnLI is a freelance uriter in New York.
ir
Original Deluxe Fruitcake
Absolutely the best value in delivered gifts - each in its own collector's' A
tin - festively decorated, elegantly presented, and combines the world's W
finest ingredients for a delicacy like none other you have tasted. Golden
sweet pineapple and papaya, hand-picked from our farms in Costa Rica.
Ripe, red cherries, plump raisins and fresh, native pecans. All blended in
our honey-rich batter. Your cake is hand-decorated with glaceed cherries
and pineapples and rare, decorator-quality, native pecan halves. Baked to
perfection and finished with our secret glaze.
<uoi Regular DeLuxe (l-ib. 14-or.) $20.95
8102 Medium DeLuxe (2-lb. 14-oz.) $30.45
8113 Apricot Pecan Cake (l-iOT-oz.) $29.95
sits Apricot Pecan Cake .jU-lb. 14-oz.) $38.45
si: Pineapple Pecan Cake (l-fb'l4-oz.) $25.95
si49 Pineapple Pecan Cake (2-lb. 14-oz.) $36.45
sios Apple Cinnamon Pecan Cake 71-ib, 14-oz!) $27.95
8183 Apple Cinnamon Pecan Cake . o. 14-oz.) $37.40
8-oi Texas Blonde Pecan Cake (l-lb. 14-oz.) $24.90
8802. Texas BLonde Pecan Cake (2-lb. 14-oz.) ' $33.95
fcCoum street Bama
THE HISTORY OF
HAND HYGIENE
Working in a maternity hospital in Vienna in
1841, Hungarian physician Ignaz Phillip Sem
melweis (1818-1865) noticed that significantly
fewer patients died in the ward run by mid
wives than the ward run by student doctors.
The young doctors came on duty after work
ing with cadavers in anatomy class and with
out washing their hands. When Semmelweis
insisted his students wash their hands before
treating patients, deaths decreased dramati
cally. Still, Semmelweis’ observations were
dismissed by the medical world. Only after
French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, German
scientist Robert Koch and British surgeon
Joseph Lister provided more evidence of the
germ theory and antiseptic techniques was
the value of hand washing accepted. Begin
ning in the late 1860 s, the practice of washing
hands increased among medical workers and
eventually became the norm.
FR[[!
ns**.
L. ftl "'"Dour
bW order; j
401 W. Seventh Ave.
Corsicana, IX 75110