Wash your hands and stay healthy this holiday season. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, washing hands can keep you healthy and help prevent the spread of respiratory and diarrheal infections. Germs can spread from person to person or from surfaces to people when you touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands. 

Washington County Public Health Nurse Shelby Hill shares the importance of hand washing during the holidays, and what else can be done to protect each other, “It’s going to be important to make sure we are washing our hands very well. If we are getting runny noses and things like that are very common, making sure we are washing our hands, using hand sanitizer. Then too, if you are not feeling well, stay home, and you can still enjoy the holidays, but better to not have things spread around with families and stuff like that. And be understanding of our family members if they are sick, and things like that too this season.”  

Handwashing with soap is one of the best ways to stay healthy. If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol to clean your hands. It is good to be aware that hand sanitizer does not work well against Norovirus, but washing hands thoroughly will help to stop the spread.