“Listen to your Mother” must rank amongst the most frequently used pieces of instructive conversation anybody heard in their lifetime. How many times did you hear that phrase? What has she actually taught you?
Mothers taught us about TIME TRAVEL; "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
Mothers taught us FORESIGHT; "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
Mothers taught us about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION; "Stop acting like your father!"
Mothers taught us GENETICS; "You're just like your father."
Mothers taught us about JUSTICE "One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"
But the most important thing she taught anyone of us is; “Wash your filthy hands before you touch anything.”
Here goes.
1. Kitchen Sponges and Rags:
The moist environment of sponges and rags is an ideal place for bacteria to flourish. Wiping your counters or dishes with a dirty sponge will only transfer the bacteria from one item to another.
Replace kitchen sponges and rags often. Ideally, this should be about once a week. Allow them to dry out between uses. Most bacteria can only survive a few hours on dry surfaces. Make sure that you remove all organic material from the sponge or rag before you leave it to dry.
Disinfect sponges regularly by putting them in the dishwasher. Rags should be washed in the washing machine and then dried on high heat. You can also sterilize sponges in the microwave. A dry sponge can be sterilized in the microwave in 30 seconds, a wet sponge in 60.
The cracks and crevices in your cutting board provide plenty of space for bacteria to grow. Be careful of cross contamination. If you use your cutting board for raw meat or fish, be sure to sanitize it thoroughly before chopping vegetables! To clean the board, first hand-wash it using hot water and dish detergent to remove any food particles. You can then use an approved antiseptic surface spray and wipe dry with absorbent tissue.
3. Kitchen Surfaces
Kitchen countertops can still harbor germs even if they look clean. This is especially true if you've "cleaned" them with a dirty sponge or rag. The kitchen tap and handle is an often-overlooked source of potentially harmful bacteria.
4. Sink Drains
The drains in both your kitchen sink and bathtub provide yet another moist environment that bacteria love. Use baking soda and an old toothbrush to get rid of stains, grit and grime around drains. Disinfect drains regularly as you would any other surface.
5. Doorknobs
Bacteria can easily accumulate on doorknobs and other handles such as the particularly problematic refrigerator handle. Anyone can transfer bacteria from their hand to a doorknob, and these bacteria can cause illness, especially if the person is sick, doesn't wash their hands after going to the bathroom, or has touched raw food. When you touch the doorknob you may also pick up the bacteria, which can then enter your body if you touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Wash your hands frequently, even if they don't look dirty, but be careful not to overdo it. If you wash your hands too frequently, the fatty acids in your skin will be depleted, which leaves you susceptible to open wounds and sores that actually increase the risk of infection. Antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. It would be wise to identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to. Treat doorknobs and the refrigerator handle regularly with a good antiseptic surface spray.
6. Toothbrushes:
It's important to replace your toothbrush every three months not only because of bacterial accumulation but also due to bristle wear. Replace your toothbrush after you've had an infectious illness to avoid coming in contact with any lingering bacteria.
Germs are Easily Transferred From Everyday Objects To Hands
A new study has found everyday objects such as telephones and kitchen taps can transfer high levels of potentially dangerous bacteria to the hands. And from the hands, bacteria often end up on the lips. In one of the studies, the researchers looked at coliform bacteria, including fecal coliforms, on the palms of volunteers' hands after making dinner, cleaning the house, doing laundry, using a public restroom, petting a dog or a cat, or returning home from elementary school. The volunteers' hands were disinfected before the activity. Surprisingly, they found that people had the least amount of microorganisms on their hands after leaving a public restroom, while people had the most after making a meal. After making a meal, cleaning the house ranked next with transferring the most bacteria, next came petting a dog or a cat (dogs transmitted the most germs of the two) (However cuddly they may be, cats and dogs can bring a multitude of germs into your home. If your cat walks on the kitchen work surfaces make sure you clean them thoroughly before preparing food. Cats and dogs have also been found to be a source of salmonella!), then came returning home from school, then doing the laundry (because of handling underwear), and finally using a public restroom.
Some statistics:
Squeezing out a sponge transferred between 100,000 to a million organisms to the hands!
If somebody in the house is sick the toilet should be disinfected every time they use it. A typical trip to the loo can create up to 100 billion potentially disease causing organisms some of which end up in the air and on the toilet after flushing - even if the lid's put down.
What kind of germs are we talking about here? Well, anything, but commonly the most prevalent ones are those causing Food borne Diseases like Viral Gastroenteritis like Rotavirus, Bacterial Gastroenteritis like the Salmonellosis, Influenza, Colds, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Arthritis, Kidney Failure, and many more.
To prevent harmful bacteria from growing in food, always:
· Refrigerate foods promptly. If you let prepared food stand at room temperature for more than 2 hours, it may not be safe to eat. Set your refrigerator correctly.
· Cook food to the appropriate temperature Foods are properly cooked only when they are heated long enough and at a high enough temperature to kill the harmful bacteria that cause illness.
· Prevent cross-contamination. Bacteria can spread from one food product to another throughout the kitchen and can get onto cutting boards, knives, sponges, and countertops. Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and their juices away from other foods that are ready to eat.
· Handle food properly. Always wash your hands before touching food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers, or handling pets, as well as after handling raw meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, or eggs.
· Clean surfaces well before preparing food on them.
·Keep cold food cold and hot food hot.
· Maintain hot cooked food at 60°C or higher.
· Reheat cooked food to at least 75°C. Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared food, and leftovers within two hours.
· Never defrost food on the kitchen counter. Use the refrigerator, cold running water, or the microwave oven.
· Never let food marinate at room temperature; refrigerate it.
· Divide large amounts of leftovers into small, shallow containers for quick cooling in the refrigerator.
· Remove the stuffing from poultry and other meats immediately and refrigerate it in a separate container.
· Do not pack the refrigerator. Cool air must circulate to keep food safe.
So why am I going on and on about disinfecting and cleaning and wiping and drying and hygiene and germs and what not?
Whoever was present during the past holiday season saw the desperation and suffering of these poor souls from far away that came here to relax and get some well deserved rest.
They got the dreaded Gastro instead. They could not relax (especially certain sphincter muscles), they could not rest (they had to stand in line with hundreds other victims to share overcrowded public bathrooms or wait patiently at the local pharmacy for some form of help).
What caused the outbreak? Nobody really knows, I don’t think there was enough time for any healthcare staff anywhere to run detailed microbiological diagnostics; everybody were just trying to plug holes (pun intended). What caused the condition to become so big and almost out of control? Let me tell you: Everything that you have read so far in this edition was ignored at some stage by someone and those individual cases blended into a panic-stricken sea of disease. Whole families were affected; whole buildings were affected, the whole coastal area became a quagmire of diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration, spasms, fever, and total misery.
Were you part of this? Were you affected? I seem to think that the locals were immunological better prepared or maybe we were more confined to our own areas and did not share the public places with as many people as did the holiday makers. Whatever the reasons, I did not see many local people affected as bad as some of the visitors.
People were blaming the tap water, they were blaming the lagoons, and they were blaming the restaurants, the air that we breathe. They blamed the locals, the locals blamed them, they blamed the doctor’s surgeries, the hospitals, even the municipalities were implied, and all that was in fact wrong was they didn’t wash their hands! They didn’t listen to Mother.
Here is the bottom line: When you are near another human being, follow these rules, called the Naudé Paranoid Hand Rules:
When this other person approaches you, sneak a quick glance in the general direction of their hands.
If this other person is busy with some activity like preparing food, serving drinks, cleaning; sneak a longer glance in the direction of their hands. If this other person is attempting to touch you or indicating by way of gestures that you are about to be touched, take a long hard stare at their hands.
Why?
One reason only; look at the hands and ask yourself these simple questions: “Where were those hands just now? What did they touch? What are under those nails? From where did those fingers recently emerge?
Then follow those hands and see what and where they touch.
Be scared. Be very scared.
That is enough of the scary stuff.
Maybe on second thoughts, time for a quick commercial - seeing that it is now almost commonplace to do that; my manufacturing business called PeeCee has launched a product called PeeCee Protection Spray, born out of fear and frustration during the Gastro Epidemic. It is an extremely effective antiseptic surface spray. Pity it only came out off the development stage right at the end of the season, it could have saved a lot of people a lot of misery. We supplied a group of sports people in a bus with a couple of bottles of spray when they had 5 or 6 people already sick. They sprayed the grips and common surfaces in the bus and nobody else became sick during the remainder of their tour!
At the same time the germ spread like wildfire through even upmarket residential blocks.
We supplied a lot of people during those last weeks of the holiday season, and we obviously used the product liberally in the pharmacy where hundreds of people handled prescriptions, money, handbags, towels and what else on a daily basis.
We sprayed the counters, the toilets, the door handles, the cash drawers and on top of that we washed our hands every 2 hours. Result? During the entire 4 weeks, through contact with all those affected people, we had NO incidence of Gastro amongst my staff! Am I getting through to you now?
This situation can easily repeat itself in the future. Will you be prepared?
Wow, this was a long one. Wet of the Press (pun NOT intended).
Greetings and a show of clean hands,
Pieter and Renette Naudé
