Kim Amer is associate professor at
DePaul University’s School of Nursing and on a recent visit to her daughter’s
middle school she noticed something very important to most people. She caught a
few girls leaving the restroom without washing their hands. She told them to
come back and wash their hands but to no avail because the students rolled
their eyes and kept on strolling. With
the growing numbers of antibiotic-resistant germs and high rates of
hospital-acquired infections (watch for hospital faucets), Amer states that the
U.S needs to do a better job of educating all people, including health care
providers, about the importance of good hygiene.
Now I totally agree with Kim Amer that washing hands is a
practice of good hygiene and everyone should do it. In fact she states, “A
recent World Health Organization publication delineates how many epidemic
diseases can be prevented simply by using good hand hygiene.” Like I said I agree
that washing hands is important and it could definitely help eliminate germs.
That is until I read an article of microbes being our “Old Friends” by
Christopher Lowry. An observation was done and it concluded that allergic
diseases were less common in children from larger families compared to children
in families with only one child. They assumed it was because of increased
exposure to infectious agents through their siblings. Now this is not saying
washing hands can actually be less infectious than washing hands, but it is
saying microbes can actually be a deterrent for diseases.
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| http://www.123rf.com/clipart-vector/microbes.html |
Kim Amer discusses that developing countries simply lack
resources to practice the high level of hygiene expected in the United States.
The result in developing countries discussed in the article says that there is
a higher rate of illness and death.
Developed countries, she states have the resources to educate and
enforce better resources. I agree that developed countries have the resources
to educate people on good hygiene. But what I don’t agree with is the fact that
the result of poor hygiene in developing countries is a higher rate of death
and illness. Of course poor hygiene can result in illness and even death but I
don’t believe that poor hygiene alone is the main factor in higher rates of
illness and death in developing countries. Are their other factors below the
surface? Can it be the fact that
developed countries have more resources to deter death defying microbes? Or
those developing countries are exposed to illness in their native land by trees
or other wildlife?
I agree that hygiene is important as discussed in the
article. But with all these experiments and research going on about how
microbes can really be helping us, it can get a little confusing. I guess microbes will be considered friends to
some and enemies to others. As of now I’m kind of in the middle, even though
I’m still definitely washing my hands after every bathroom use. I know microbes
can be harmful but we also need them to survive. So is washing your hands after
every object you touch good? Or is letting your kids come in contact with mud
really bad?
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/27/are-americans-too-obsessed-with-cleanliness/just-wash-your-hands
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/27/are-americans-too-obsessed-with-cleanliness/some-microbes-may-be-our-old-friends
