Physical cleansing is commonly understood to protect us against physical contamination. However, recent studies showed additional effects on moral judgments. Under the heading of the "Macbeth effect" direct links between bodily cleansing and one's own moral purity have been demonstrated. Here we investigate (1) how moral judgments develop over time and how they are altered by hand washing, (2) ...

This prospective cohort study was carried out in the neonatal unit of the Yangon Children Hospital, Myanmar, to gather more information on the types of feedings and hand-washing practices of mothers as the determinant of severe dehydration in infants with acute diarrhoea due to Escherichia coli. The study subjects included 100 infants with diarrhoea, aged less than 4 months, admitted to the hos...

The hand hygiene behavior of 400 middle school students (grades 1-3) in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do was studied to determine how stages of change were affected by food safety education, focusing on hand hygiene and general food safety. Subjects were 51.3% male and 44.3% of study subjects were first graders of middle school. Approximately 40% of subjects were at the stage of action, 42.7% were at the ...

Within a hand-washing clinical trial, we evaluated factors associated with fomite contamination in households with an influenza-infected child. Influenza virus RNA contamination was higher in households with low absolute humidity and in control households, suggesting that hand washing reduces surface contamination.

organisms, including gram-negative bacilli, adenoviruses, the herpes simplex virus, and fungi. Infection puts eyes at higher risk of complications after cataract surgery. Hand washing is the most important, fundamental principle of infection control. It must be strongly encouraged and practised by all disciplines in the health care setting. Hand washing is required in the following situations:

OBJECTIVE We conducted a longitudinal study to assess the impact of a hand-washing intervention on growth and biomarkers of child health in Nepali slums. This is the first study to evaluate the impact of hand-washing on markers of subclinical, asymptomatic infections associated with childhood growth faltering. METHODS We recruited a total sample of infants in the target age-range (3-12 months...

Effective and appropriate hand-washing practice for schoolchildren is important in preventing infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, which is the second most common cause of death among school-age children in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of the review was to identify hand hygiene intervention strategies to reduce infectious diseases such as diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections among ...

OBJECTIVES The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) state that adequate hand hygiene maintained by medical personnel is an indispensable prerequisite for controlling nosocomial infections. The recommendations of CDC and WHO emphasize the obligation to wash hands after each contact with a patient, after the exposure to a potentially infe...

Hand washing is a critical activity in preventing the spread of infection in health-care environments. Several guidelines recommended a hand washing protocol consisting of six steps that ensure that all areas of the hands are thoroughly cleaned. In this paper, we describe a novel approach that uses a computer vision system to monitor the user’s hands motions in order to ensure that the hand was...