Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Beyond the usual soap, water and paper towel treatment, hand hygiene has typically been the domain of health-care professionals and food and beverage workers.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a reminder for households around the world about the importance of thorough, multi-step hand washing. The way respiratory viruses have circulated this winter following the return to in-person learning and pre-pandemic social activities, most Canadians could probably benefit from a refresher.
Fortunately, the standard essential practices for hand hygiene in health-care settings have just received an update, thanks to a collaboration between five major U.S.-based medical organizations.
The latest recommendations – entitled "Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections through Hand Hygiene: 2022 Update" – emphasize the importance of healthy skin and nails and easy access to alcohol-based hand sanitizers for preventing the spread of infectious germs.
Here are some of the current guidelines anyone can apply in their daily life.
Short, natural nails with standard polish or no polish are easier to clean than long nails, artificial nails, and nails painted with gel shellac, according to the guidelines. They're also less likely to harbour harmful germs.
Dr. Emily Sickbert-Bennett is one of the authors of the latest guidelines, and works as director of hospital epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Hospitals.
She said that while the recommendations around fingernails apply specifically to health-care settings, where bacterial and viral outbreaks are a serious concern, anyone working with potential contaminants at home should also make sure to clean the underside of their nails.
"So if you are…say, handling raw chicken or touching the inside of a raw turkey, that is, an activity that can contaminate your hands," she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Wednesday. "And of course, you want to be sure that you can clean all the surfaces, including up and under the fingernails where there could be some contamination."
It's easy to cut corners while handwashing, even for health-care professionals. According to the authors of the updated guidelines, existing research had shown only seven per cent of health-care personnel effectively clean the entire surface of their hands.
Thumbs and fingertips are the areas of the hand people most frequently miss. So the next time you wash your hands, pay extra attention to your thumbs and fingertips. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends rubbing wet, soapy hands together for at least 20 seconds before rinsing and drying with clean paper towel. If soap and water aren’t available, use a hand sanitizer containing at least 60 per cent alcohol and rub your hands together until dry.
According to the authors, maintaining healthy skin and nails is a crucial element of hand hygiene.
Cracked, damaged and otherwise injured skin on the hand can become a haven for harmful pathogens, according to the World Health Organization, which writes in its own hand hygiene guidelines, "skin damage may lead to bacteria colonizing the skin and possible spread of blood-borne viruses as well as other microorganisms."
Sickbert-Bennett said people are also less inclined to follow proper, thorough hand-washing techniques when their hands are dry and painfully cracked. This, she said, is where the guidelines around healthy skin and nails really apply to the average person.
"The types of organisms we're talking about, they are unlikely to cause disease in a home setting among healthy people," she said.
"I'd say that the more relatable piece of this to the home setting…is that as your skin breaks down, it's very irritated, and then makes it difficult and painful for you to continue to wash your hands. So it is really important to keep moisture on them to keep your skin healthy."
The updated hand hygiene guidelines recommend maintaining the health of your skin and nails by making sure you have access to hand sanitizer and moisturizer, avoiding washing with overly hot water, and patting, rather than rubbing, your hands dry.
Of all the new and old guidelines for hand hygiene in health-care settings, Sickbert-Bennett said there is one that is particularly important in households: make sure everyone is doing it. In some households, this might involve coming up with creative ways to turn hand washing into a routine before and after using the washroom, preparing food or eating.
"I think the thing that really matters the most when it comes to hand hygiene is doing it…and sort of developing the habit to do it each time when it's really important," she said.
"To me, this sort of boils down to, how to ingrain habits in your household among your family; even simple things like saying out loud before meals, 'Let's all wash our hands before we eat,' and getting into routines and habits."
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
Police are investigating after a transport truck collided with a train in Sarnia.
As some family doctors are retiring and others are moving away from family medicine, there are fewer medical students to take their place.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.