The Washington Post - 19.03.2020

the washington post

.

thursday, march

19

,

2020

Dc

10

Wellness

BY REBECCA GALE

Are your hands painfully dry

and cracked because you’ve been

following the widespread advice

to frequently wash them or apply

hand sanitizer to prevent the

spread of the coronavirus? If so,

you should be aware of a less

widely cited hygiene recommen-

dation: to moisturize as well.

“Keeping skin moisturized is

important,” said Craig Shapiro,

an attending physician in pediat-

ric infectious diseases at Nem-

ours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for

Children in Delaware. “If the skin

is breaking down or raw, then the

soap and alcohol disinfectants do

not work as well. Also, when skin

is chapped and broken, it’s un-

comfortable, and people can be

less likely to wash their hands to

prevent transmission of germs

and infection.”

Cracked and bleeding hands

are also more susceptible to infec-

tions. “Whenever you have a

break in that skin barrier, that

allows germs and bacteria to

invade the skin area,” said Chris-

tina Johns, senior medical advis-

er and spokeswoman for PM

Pediatrics. Any microbe can tech-

nically enter through open

wounds, Johns said, but corona-

virus tends to enter the body

through the respiratory system.

Through the skin, transmission

tends to be typical skin bacteria,

such as staph infections and

strep.

Johns and Shapiro confirmed

that moisturizing hands does not

increase the likelihood of picking

up or spreading germs, especially

if the hands are clean. Moisturiz-

ing hands does reduce microbial

shedding from the skin and is

part of good hand hygiene, which

will protect people from picking

up viruses and reduce the likeli-

hood of transmission.

Johns recommends that peo-

ple apply a thick, emollient mois-

turizer in ointment form, such as

Aquaphor Healing Ointment,

rather than rely on creams and

lotions, which can have alcohol

and cause further drying. Shapiro

recommends selecting a soap or

sanitizer with an emollient and

avoiding perfumes and dyes, as

they can further irritate skin.

Soaps and sanitizers with mois-

turizers can be just as effective,

though Shapiro says hand sani-

tizers should have at least 60 per-

bedtime, put on some good-

quality, inexpensive, effective

moisturizer,” she said. “If your

skin is becoming raw and dry, y ou

might be washing your hands too

much.”

Johns advises of the moisturiz-

er: “Don’t share it with anyone

else. You want to use clean hands

— you don’t want to have dirty

fingers on the pumps. I know a lot

of people like to swipe their finger

on the top of the tube, but touch

the packaging as [little] as possi-

ble. Fewer things coming into

contact is best practice in gener-

al, in terms of minimizing germs

and microbes.”

While hand-washing can leave

skin drier than hand sanitizer,

doctors caution against relying

exclusively on sanitizer. When

hands are visibly dirty or greasy,

soap and water should be used

instead.

The Centers for Disease Con-

trol and Prevention recommends

washing your hands frequently,

especially after going to the bath-

room, before eating and after

blowing your nose, coughing or

sneezing. Yo u should spend

20 seconds at the sink and make

sure to lather up the parts of the

hands that are often overlooked

— the backs, between the fingers,

the thumbs and under the nails.

(Some experts recommend cut-

ting your nails.) After washing,

you should dry your hands thor-

oughly.

Keeping hands in good condi-

tion is especially important for

health-care workers, who must

wash their hands frequently and

are at a greater risk of spreading

infections, Malani said. But she

warned against sharing lotion

bottles in health-care settings,

citing the cautionary tale of a

nurse’s fungal nail infection that

was colonized in a communal

lotion bottle — a nd then spread to

patients. “We cultured all of her

stuff at home — her Oil of Olay,

loofah and Vaseline, and it all had

[the fungus],” she said. “It was an

extreme situation.”

[email protected]

Rebecca Gale is a writer in chevy

chase who covers health, politics

and policy.

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To prevent coronavirus, go beyond hand-washing. Moisturize, too.

IStocK

cent alcohol.

“Lotion doesn’t need to be a

constant thing to be effective,”

said Preeti Malani, an infectious-

disease doctor and chief health

officer at the University of Michi-

gan. And it doesn’t need to be

expensive: Drugstore brands,

such as Vaseline and Aquaphor,

can work well. Moisturizing lo-

tions work by locking in existing

moisture, so the ideal time to

apply them is after washing,

when the skin is hydrated. “A t

“Keeping skin

moisturized is

important. If the skin is

breaking down or raw,

then the soap and

alcohol disinfectants do

not work as well.”

Craig Shapiro, attending physician in

pediatric infectious diseases at

Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital

for children