Microbes on our hands-Some save & some harm us

Did you know?

There are two groups of microbes on our hands, one saves us and the other harms us

Hands are the most frequent vehicles for transmitting, Hospital Acquired Infections or highly infectious community infections like COVID-19 and now spreading Monkey Pox.

Normal skin of our hand harbours many microbes which do not harm us, but rather save us from pathogenic organisms by becoming a barrier between skin and pathogenic microbes. These microbes are known as Resident flora shown in green colour in this photograph.

Another group of microbes are that contaminate our hands by adhering to the skin of our hands when touched to a contaminated area. They do not stay on our skin permanently and are transferred to other surfaces when coming in contact with contaminated hands.

As these organisms are shifting from one place to the other through our hands, they are termed Transient flora which is shown in red in the photograph.

This transient flora is mainly dangerous and becomes the cause of infections as they are transferred from the source of infection to the host.

These transient microbes are easily removable from hands by proper hand washing with Soap and Water and the risk of such transmissible infections reduces by >80%.

There may be some other microbes also on our hands which are neither harmful nor beneficial to us.

There may be many barriers or/and excuses due to which sometimes hand washing is difficult or even impossible e.g.

1) Hand washing facilities are not available

2) Need hand cleaning very frequently

3) Hands remain wet for longer periods

4) Need a sterile towel every time.

Under such circumstances, CDC has recommended that “Alcohol-based hand rubs significantly reduce the number of germs on the skin and are fast-acting”.

Hence where ever the hand wash is difficult, one may use alcohol-based hand rubs to reduce the risk of direct contact-related transmissible infections. The photograph also depicts the areas (Red) of importance and to take utmost care during washing or rubbing our hands.

Wash your hand to save yourself from dangerous Transient microbes