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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