Schoolchildren have hands full of disease-causing organisms, a study conducted in two major Indian cities found. A huge 61 per cent children surveyed had germs on their hands.
The most common of them was staphylococcus aureus, which causes food poisoning, respiratory and skin diseases.
Enteric bacteria like escherichia coli, klebsiella, enterobacter, proteus and enterococci, which cause diarrheal diseases, and Group A streptococcus, which is a potential respiratory and skin pathogen, were also found.
The study - done by scientists from Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kolkata's KPC Medical College and Bangalore's Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences - involved 208 school children in Bangalore and Kolkata in the 10-14 age group.
Scientists took hand swabs of the students before mid-day meal time. The students were also asked questions on the practice of hand washing and the material used for that, hand washing facilities at home and school and the importance of hand washing.
"Their hands were contaminated before taking food. Although they washed hands before meals, they hardly used soap because of non-availability," a scientist said.
In the absence of water and soap for hand washing, it is not possible to inculcate the habit of washing hands in children, scientists said in the study published in the Indian Journal of Public Health. In addition, children should dry hands with clean dry cloth. Otherwise, the effect of hand washing is lost.
In the study, only 18 per cent of the students said their school had the facility for washing hands with soap while 79 per cent said the facility was not available. Some of the students did not respond to the query.
Around 86 per cent children said they washed hands before lunch, but only 21 per cent said they used soap to wash hands.
Contaminated hands play a major role in fecal-oral transmission of diseases.
Hands should be cleaned before, during, and after preparing food, before eating, before and after attending to an ill person, before and after treating a cut or wound, after using the toilet, after changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet, after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, after touching an animal or animal waste and after touching garbage.
The most common of them was staphylococcus aureus, which causes food poisoning, respiratory and skin diseases.
Enteric bacteria like escherichia coli, klebsiella, enterobacter, proteus and enterococci, which cause diarrheal diseases, and Group A streptococcus, which is a potential respiratory and skin pathogen, were also found.
The study - done by scientists from Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Kolkata's KPC Medical College and Bangalore's Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences - involved 208 school children in Bangalore and Kolkata in the 10-14 age group.
Scientists took hand swabs of the students before mid-day meal time. The students were also asked questions on the practice of hand washing and the material used for that, hand washing facilities at home and school and the importance of hand washing.
"Their hands were contaminated before taking food. Although they washed hands before meals, they hardly used soap because of non-availability," a scientist said.
In the absence of water and soap for hand washing, it is not possible to inculcate the habit of washing hands in children, scientists said in the study published in the Indian Journal of Public Health. In addition, children should dry hands with clean dry cloth. Otherwise, the effect of hand washing is lost.
In the study, only 18 per cent of the students said their school had the facility for washing hands with soap while 79 per cent said the facility was not available. Some of the students did not respond to the query.
Around 86 per cent children said they washed hands before lunch, but only 21 per cent said they used soap to wash hands.
Contaminated hands play a major role in fecal-oral transmission of diseases.
Hands should be cleaned before, during, and after preparing food, before eating, before and after attending to an ill person, before and after treating a cut or wound, after using the toilet, after changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet, after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing, after touching an animal or animal waste and after touching garbage.
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