• Wet your hands with water under a tap
• Apply some soap
• Rub your palms and fingers together in a circular motion moving up and down
• Turn your hands over to rub the knuckles and back of your hands with the palm and fingers of your other hand
• Turn your hands with palms facing and rub the insides of your fingers up and down all the way to the top and bottom of each finger to clean the inside of your fingers
• Turn your hands and cup the tips of your finger and wash the back of them against your palms
• Cover each thumb (one at a time) and rub all around them
• Turn each palm over (one hand at a time) and wash your nails on your other hand in a circular motion inside the each palm
• Wash around each wrist with your other hand – one at a time
• Rinse both hands under the running tap water
• Use a disposable towel and dry both hands and wrists well
• Use the disposable towel to turn the tap water off. If you do not have a disposable towel when in public places use your elbow to turn the tap off.
• Throw the used paper towel away

Note: If you do not have access to water you can use alcohol hand sanitizers instead. Try to use the same technique as above.

Why is it important to wash your hands often and especially after doing certain activities.

Why:

• To help stop picking up infections and spreading them to other people
• It can help to not spread infections when visiting someone in a hospital or other healthcare environments
• It removes dirt, bacteria and viruses which can help stop them spreading to other people and objects. Stop the spreading of food poisoning, flu, and diarrhoea
• It is especially important to stop the spreading during a pandemic

When:

• After using the toilet , changing a diaper or cleaning animal cages or litter trays
• As soon as you arrive home
• Before eating or handling food
• Before and after touching raw foods like meats and vegetables
• After blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing (you should sneeze and cough into your elbow or a tissue)
• After touching pets, animals and their food
• After shopping
• Before and after treating a sore or wound