🧼🚰🙌🏻#Handwashing with soap & water removes germs (i.e. #SARS_CoV_2 that causes #COVID19) from hands. This helps prevent infections because people frequently touch their 👀👃🏻👄without even realizing it. Germs can get into the body through the eyes, nose, mouth & make us sick.
Germs from unwashed hands can get into food & drinks while people prepare / consume them. Germs can multiply in some types of food / drinks, under certain conditions, and make people sick. [h/t Donna Gill Allen] #handwashing #scicomm iflscience.com/chemistry/this… 
Germs from unwashed hands can be transferred to other objects, like handrails, table tops, or toys, and then transferred to another person’s hands. #handwashing #scicomm [h/t US CDC]
Removing germs through #handwashing helps prevent #diarrhea AND respiratory infections (#coronavirus, #flu) and may even help prevent skin & eye infections. #scicomm
#Handwashing education reduces: 1) diarrheal illness by 23-40%, 2) diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by 58%, 3) respiratory illnesses in the general population by 16-21%, 4) absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29-57% #scicomm
🧼🚰🙌🏻Although people around the world clean their hands with water, very few use soap to wash their hands. This shows the effect of #handwashing with water alone / soap & water compared to no handwashing. #scicomm europepmc.org/article/MED/21…
🚰🙌🏻🧼 Reducing infections by #handwashing helps prevent #antibiotics overuse - the single most important factor leading to #antimicrobialresistance #AMR. Handwashing also prevents people from getting sick with germs that are already antibiotic-resistant #scicomm h/t @biomerieux
