The Director, Public Health and Disease Control, Ebonyi Ministry of Health, Dr Chris Achi, said that regular hand washing reduces risk of contracting infectious diseases by more than 30 per cent.
Achi made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abakaliki on the occasion of 2014 World Hand Washing Day.
He said the event was to create awareness on importance of regular hand washing to personal and environmental hygiene.
According to him, regular hand washing contributed about 30 per cent in reduction of deadly infectious diseases, stressing that human hands usually became the first contact with micro organisms that cause infectious diseases.
The director said that regular use of clean running water and antiseptic soaps could reduce the dangers of contracting diseases.
“The idea behind observing Oct. 15 every year as World Hand Washing Day is simply to raise global awareness of importance of cleaning our hands regularly.
“Our hands perform a lot of activities and constitute the first contact between us, other animate and inanimate objects within the environment.
“Often times we use our hands to touch the micro organisms that cause these infectious diseases and thereby contract them.
“When we indulge in regular hand washing we will enhance our personal hygiene and cleanliness and thereby reduce the risk of contracting these infectious diseases,’’ Achi said.
He advised Nigerians to cultivate the habit of regularly washing their hands before putting anything in their mouth and after using the toilets to stay healthy always.
He also called on people to ensure thorough washing of food items such as vegetables and fruits as well as their cooking utensils as a way of ensuring proper maintenance of safe hygiene.
He noted that one of the surest ways of staying healthy and keeping away from infectious diseases was observing proper personal and environmental hygiene.
