Janet Ogundepo
Senior public health experts have stated that caregivers and health providers, especially those working in nurseries, hospice care and elderly homes, must pay special attention to their fingernails.
The doctors disclosed that fingernails could harbour more than 32 different strains of germs and parasites, and babies, hospice patients and the elderly have low immunity, making them at risk of food contamination and severe diarrhoea.
The experts, in exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, further noted that persons who kept long fingernails and ate with their fingers were at higher risk of transmitting infections and food contamination.
The specialists encouraged regular hand hygiene and handwashing habits, advising the use of soap and water and a good hand scrub.
According to a health blog, Thaiclinic.com, gastrointestinal infections, such as diarrhoea, hepatitis A, cholera, dysentery, and various parasitic diseases, could be transmitted when dirty hands touch food that is then consumed.
The World Health Organisation states that hand hygiene can prevent up to 50 per cent of avoidable infections acquired during healthcare delivery.
The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention notes that many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water.
The CDC further states that washing hands could prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrhoea infections.
The WHO recommends that the hands should be washed when visibly soiled for 40-6- seconds, otherwise a hand rub or hand sanitiser should be used.
To wash the hands, “Wet hands with water, apply enough soap to cover all hand surfaces, rub hands palm to palm, right palm over left dorsum with interlaced fingers and vice versa, palm to palm with fingers interlaced, backs 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 towel, Use a towel to turn off the faucet, your hands are now safe.”
Dr Tuyi Mebawondu
Speaking with our correspondent, a Public Health specialist, Dr Tuyi Mebawondu, stated that since the fingers were the most functional external part of the human body, hand hygiene was very significant.
He further noted that the fingernails, although not easily accessible to humans, harboured over 32 strains of different germs and parasites.
“The fingers harbour a lot of germs. Some of those germs stay naturally there, some can be imported. When you look at the whole fingers, you ask yourself, after hand washing, there will still be germs in the fingers, then where are those germs hiding?
“There are two critical spaces within the fingers, the interdigital spaces, and the space under the fingernails. Now, there are quite many. There are more than 32 strains of different germs and parasites that have been cultured from those samples under the fingernails, from staphylococcus, spleen worms, roundworms, and eggs of roundworms, which can be detected under the fingernails. This is not surprising because the finger gets involved in so many things,” the doctor said.
Mebawondu also noted that manual workers who don’t wear protective gloves were at a higher risk of harbouring and transmitting infections through their fingernails.
The risk, the physician said, was higher for persons who “use your fingers to eat food and just run ordinary water through their hands or their fingers and start using it to eat.”
He asserted that food handlers, health workers and caregivers had to pay more attention to their fingernail hygiene.
“If you are a health worker, if you are working in the hospice, old people’s homes, or nurseries, then you have to give special attention to your fingernails. Why all this? People in old people’s homes, nurseries, and hospice care, have a challenged immune system and are prone to suppressed immunity, in which case the transmission of germs can worsen their situation.
“Also, when you want to eat, you have to pay special attention to your fingernails because it has been shown that contamination from fingernails can lead to severe diarrhoea and many diseases, including ascariasis and Salmonella Typhi (Typhoid fever)” Mebawondu said.
The doctor also noted that long fingernails harbour more bacteria beneath them, stating that individuals with such put themselves and others at risk of contamination during food handling.
He stressed that nail polishing did not prevent contamination and advised that fingernails should be trimmed, with careful attention given to cleaning under the nails, especially when handling food.
Dr Michael Olugbile
Also, a Public Health expert, Dr Michael Olugbile, stated that keeping long nails increases the risk of harbouring microbes and bacteria, consequently causing infection.
He further explained that individuals with low immune systems who come in contact with contaminated food were more vulnerable to infections, as their bodies are less capable of fighting off diseases.
“For people that have long nails, it can cause injury. It can cause a breakdown of the skin and then allow microbes to enter the body. So ideally, I think it’s safer to cut it,” Olugbile said.
He asserted that practicing good hand hygiene can significantly reduce the risk of exposure to germs and infectious agents, helping to prevent illnesses.
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