Looking to get Healthy in the New Year? Start with Washing your Hands.

Getting healthier in 2025 doesn’t start in the kitchen or the gym. On second thought, it does if you’re talking about hand washing before and after cooking a healthy meal or working out.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people seeking healthcare nationally due to acute respiratory illness is HIGH. It’s no different here in Massachusetts and more specifically the Cape and Islands where transmission of COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and RSV are high and increasing, as they were even before holiday gatherings were at their peak. And that’s not all; cases of Pertussis (whooping cough), a vaccine preventable disease, are higher on the Cape and Islands than they have been in a decade. Mycoplasma pneumonia (also known as “walking pneumonia”) is in circulation as well, and let’s not forget about the infamous and widely dreaded Norovirus (or “stomach flu”), a highly contagious gastrointestinal virus with particularly unpleasant symptoms.

Many of us resign ourselves to the likelihood that we’ll catch one of these illnesses during the cold weather season no matter what we do. But we’ll let you in on a well-known public health fact: you can take simple steps to prevent yourself and your most vulnerable loved ones (children and older adults) from getting sick. At the top of the list? Hand washing and hand hygiene.

Hand Washing/Hand Hygiene

While this one seems obvious to some, there are a surprising number of people who aren’t getting it right. How many times have you ducked into a public restroom in a hurry, giving your hands a quick rinse after using the toilet? Maybe there’s soap, maybe there’s not, but you don’t have time to test every dispenser. A rinse is better than nothing, right? You dry your hands on your shirt, grab the door handle, and race back to the demands your busy life. Or maybe you skipped the restroom altogether and slapped on a bit of hand sanitizer.

For good reason, hand washing and hand hygiene are considered a “Core Strategy” for preventing respiratory illness by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simply going through the motions won’t cut it; there’s a framework for washing and sanitizing your hands that’s been well studied and known to prevent the spread of contagious illness. You’ve heard it before but it definitely begs repeating. Why? Because germs are literally everywhere, whether they’re being spread from person to person, or from surface to person. Fun fact: Norovirus can live on surfaces and sicken those who come in contact with it for up to TWO WEEKS. So wash your hands often and wash them well, following the steps below:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or an air dryer.

As a reminder, you should wash your hands after the following activities:

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before and after eating food
• Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea
• 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, animal feed, or animal waste
• After handling pet food or pet treats
• After touching garbage

Hand Sanitizer

So where does hand sanitizer fit into the equation? Since the COVID-19 pandemic and well before, hand sanitizer was a convenient short-cut to preventing illness, especially in situations where handwashing wasn’t an option. While hand sanitizers CAN be particularly be useful in a pinch, they are not as effective as handwashing. Here are some fun facts about Norovirus to illustrate our point.

Norovirus is a hardy, highly contagious gastrointestinal illness that causes sudden (and sometimes aggressive) onset of vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain. As of present (January 2025), cases are unusually high. A person can contract norovirus from contact with an infected person or from contaminated food, water or surfaces.

This is mainly because norovirus is classified as a “non-enveloped virus”, which means its outer structure lacks a lipid (fat membrane) like “enveloped viruses” such as COVID-19 or influenza. Instead, it has a tough protein shell that makes it more resilient against disinfectants, including alcohol-based hand sanitizers (Pittman et al., 2020).

Using hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol is better than nothing when soap and water are unavailable. However, for effectiveness against all respiratory viruses and sturdy little germs like norovirus, the CDC still strongly advocates for handwashing with soap and water as the primary method to reduce transmission risk, especially after using the restroom or before preparing food.

Beyond Hands

While good hand hygiene is one of the best tools we have for preventing the spread of respiratory and GI illnesses as we endeavor to stay healthy in the New Year, it’s the tip of the iceberg. Don’t forget:

• Stay up to date on vaccines, including COVID-19 and Influenza. Although vaccinated people sometimes get infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines significantly lowers the risk of getting very sick, being hospitalized, or dying from COVID-19.
• Take steps for cleaner air! This can mean bringing in fresh outside air, purifying indoor air, or gathering outdoors. Virus particles do not build up in the air outdoors as much as they do indoors.
• Take additional precautions, including staying home and away from others if you have respiratory or gastrointestinal virus symptoms that aren’t better explained by another cause. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others.*

Additional Information and Resources

CDC’s Norovirus web page

Norovirus Outbreaks Surge Nationwide, C.D.C. Says – The New York Times

Hand Hygiene Frequently Asked Questions | Clean Hands | CDC

Hand Sanitizer Facts | Clean Hands | CDC

Handwashing Facts | Clean Hands | CDC

Why Do I Need to Wash My Hands? (for Kids) | Nemours KidsHealth

In-Depth

Hand hygiene: Back to the basics of infection control – PMC

Global Handwashing Partnership: 2022 Hand Hygiene Research Study

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