Washing your hands
Washing your hands properly is one of the most important things you can do to help stop the spread of many illnesses, such as flu, food poisoning and other infections, to other people.
When you need to wash your hands
Hands normally carry lots of germs, so you should wash your hands:
- after using the toilet or changing a nappy
- before and after you touch or cook food
- when visibly dirty
- after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
- before and after treating a cut or wound
- after touching animals, including pets, their food and equipment
- after visiting a farm
Washing your hands properly removes dirt, viruses and bacteria to stop them spreading to other people and objects.
It can help stop people picking up infections and spreading them to others.
It can also help stop spreading infections when you're visiting someone in hospital or another healthcare setting.
Open farms
Open farms can be great days out for the family. However, farm animals can be the source of several bugs that can be passed from animals to humans and cause illness.
Some can be particularly serious for children or pregnant women.
You should avoid or minimise touching animals and their surrounding areas. If you do touch animals and their surrounding areas, it’s very important to wash your hands after.
How to wash your hands
It is important to wash your hands properly.
Make sure that you wash both your hands, especially the tips of your fingers, thumbs and the palms of your hands.
The steps below explain how to wash your hands properly:
- wet hands with water
- apply enough soap to cover all surfaces of hand
- rub hands palm to palm
- right palm over back of left hand with interlaced fingers and vice versa
- palm to palm with fingers interlaced
- back of fingers to opposing palms with fingers interlocked
- rotational rubbing of left thumb clasped in right palm and vice versa
- rotational rubbing, backwards and forwards with clasped fingers of right hand in left palm and vice versa
- rinse hands with water
- dry hands thoroughly with a single-use paper towel
- use paper towel to turn off tap
How to wash your hands video
The following video from the Public Health Agency shows how to correctly wash your hands:
Your hands are now clean.
Antibacterial hand gels
Antibacterial hand gels are not a substitute for washing hands, as they do not physically remove dirt and bugs, but may kill some bugs and germs on visibly clean hands.
To reduce picking up infections, wash hands with soap and water if they are visibly dirty. Use alcohol-based hand gel only on visibly clean hands.
Be aware that the quality of hand gel products available on the market can vary in killing germs.