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‘Hand, dish washing prevent diseases, burst stress’

By Chukwuma Muanya
08 October 2015   |   4:29 am
AS part of efforts to reduce childhood mortality rates related respiratory and diarrheal diseases and provide cheap relieve from stress, Unigloves Medical in collaboration with other European partners are championing the introduction of simple behavioral changes, such as handwashing and dishwashing with soap
Onah

Onah

Unigloves, European partners take campaign to schools, hospitals
AS part of efforts to reduce childhood mortality rates related respiratory and diarrheal diseases and provide cheap relieve from stress, Unigloves Medical in collaboration with other European partners are championing the introduction of simple behavioral changes, such as handwashing and dishwashing with soap.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this simple, accessible action can reduce the rate of mortality from these diseases by almost 25 and 50 per cent, respectively.

Unigloves Medical in collaboration with other European partners are set to carry its hygiene campaign to schools and hospitals in Nigeria as its own contribution towards the celebration of Global Handwashing Day which comes up on October 15, 2015, even as researchers, in a new study, say dishwashing could be an effective stress reliever.

Published in the journal Mindfulness, the study found that engaging in mindful dishwashing – focusing on the smell of the soap, the feel of the dishes and the warmth of the water – can trigger a positive state of mind.
Mindfulness is the ability to omit negative or distracting thoughts to enable complete awareness of one’s feelings and senses in the present moment. The practice is believed to reduce anxiety and stress, as well as contribute to improved sleep quality and reduced risk for depression.

In this latest study, co-author Adam Hanley – a doctoral candidate in the College of Education’s Counseling and School Psychology Programme at Florida State University, United States, – and colleagues set out to determine whether a positive state of mind could be reached through a simple day-to-day activity: dishwashing.

Managing Director of Unigloves Medical, Mr. Kevin Onah, in a chat with journalists said it will do this by installing dispensing machines in many selected schools and hospitals all over the country where students and workers would have the opportunity to wash their hands with disinfectants and quality solutions produced by the company. “This is a way of promoting hygiene among Nigerian children thereby preventing infections and other diseases,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a campaign to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their handwashing habits by washing their hands with soap at critical moments throughout each day. It takes place on October 15 of each year. The campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention. The campaign was initiated to reduce childhood mortality rates related respiratory and diarrheal diseases by introducing simple behavioral changes, such as handwashing with soap. This simple, accessible action can, according to research, reduce the rate of mortality from these diseases by almost 25 and 50 per cent, respectively.

The WHO has specifically entrusted the management of its patient safety programme, the Global Patient Safety Challenge, to Professor Didier Pittet, Director of the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) infection prevention and control programme.

The project is a core element of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety, launched in October 2004. Its aim is to address the issue of the prevention of health care-associated infection under the banner Clean Care is Safer Care. Professor Didier Pittet is an internationally recognized expert in hospital hygiene and infection prevention and control, and continues to support a strategy model to prevent nosocomial infections, known in scientific literature as the Geneva model. On April 14th, 2005, the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) was designated by the WHO as a centre of reference for the prevention of nosocomial infections. This recognition rewards an institutional prevention strategy and ten years of endeavour.

In view of this, Uniglove Medicals, a market-leading manufacturer of premium quality, multi-purpose disposable gloves in conjunction with two German companies; B Braun Melsugen and OP Hardt and two French companies; Holtex and Novomed and Frontier Medical Group are set to improve healthcare deliveries especially in the area of hygiene and infection prevention and control in hospitals, hospitality and manufacturing sectors in Nigeria. Unigloves Medical Healthcare Limited is a subsidiary of UG Healthcare Corporation, which is a multi-national organization and manufacturers of medical gloves and global healthcare providers. They also manufacture high quality multi-purpose medical and healthcare disposables. They are currently in 10 countries worldwide including Singapore, United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany, China and Nigeria.

Their partners in Europe have been manufacturing and distributing infection control solutions and products for over a century in various parts of the world. Such products include hand hygiene disinfectants and accessories, skin disinfectants, wound care products, intravenous, administration sets lines, instrument disinfection and sterilization, surface and medical equipment disinfection products, medical instruments, sharp boxes, specimen transport bags, repose material et cetera.
They are in Nigeria to participate at the Medic West Africa Exhibition coming up from October 14 to 16, 2015 at Eko Hotel Victoria Island, Lagos.

They will also use the opportunity to promote the Global Handwashing Day which falls within the period. According to Mr. Basile Trede, Area Sales Manager, B. Braun Melsungen AG, “We are in Nigeria because it has been observed that mortality related to hospital acquired infections could be reduced when health care personnel wash and disinfect their hands with antiseptic solution between patient contacts, as well as stringent compliance of health care workers with recommended handwashing practices. Building upon our knowledge of the world’s glove markets, we have developed a range of proprietary processes to benefit our customers.”

Currently, compliance with recommended handwashing practices is still very poor. Careful hand hygiene in medical field is set to become even more important in the future in the provision of high quality patient care. The exhibition is an opportunity for those in the hospital and health sectors, hotels, food manufacturing companies and those in a related field to tap from the experience of these experts especially in the application of the process.

Giving reasons why their company products are special, Onah declared: “We have introduced a refreshing range of scents, including citrus and peppermint, into our vitality range of dental gloves to improve the overall examination experience for both dentist and patient. We have also developed an innovative range of gloves coated with a proprietary formulation of lanolin and vitamins designed to soothe the symptoms of dehydration and irritation. Together, this powerful combination has been proven to significantly improve skin health. Gloves benefitting from our unique EasyDon finish are chlorinated on both the inside and outside areas of the cuff to reduce tackiness and improve donning, particularly for those involved in regular wet work. With ultimate hygiene in mind, Unigloves products are FirstTouch manufactured, examined and packaged with zero direct skin contact.”

The team enrolled 51 college students to their study and asked them to wash dishes. Before they did so, half of the participants were required to read a descriptive passage about dishwashing (the control group), while the other half were required to read a mindful passage about dishwashing, which emphasized the need to be mentally focused on the task at hand.
“While washing the dishes, one should only be washing the dishes. This means that while washing the dishes, one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes,” reads an excerpt of the mindfulness passage.

After participants completed the dishwashing, the researchers assessed their state of mindfulness.
Compared with control participants, the team found that those who engaged in mindful dishwashing – in which they focused on the scent of the soap, the warmth of the dishwater and how the dishes felt as they washed them – experienced a more positive state of mind

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