All posts by brevis-admin

Scrub Club

April 14, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

An elementary school in Michigan has had a very interesting school year so far, resulting in more handwashing among the students.

A group of parents noticed frequent student illnesses; one child was sick eight times last fall, more than he’d gotten sick in previous years. His mother enlisted the involvement of other parents and the school principal to encourage frequent handwashing. Thus, the Scrub Club was born.

Each class has been given a caddy with a soap dispenser, refill soap bottle, laminated poster with handwashing instructions, and nail brush for use by the students. The class to use the most soap by the end of the week wins a pizza party, plus a $20 gift card for the teacher to use for the classroom.

While it’s too early to have concrete results from the Scrub Club initiative, it seems to have had successful effects. Teachers report fewer boxes of facial tissue being used, an indication of less sickness. And nearly all students say they are now more aware of the benefits of handwashing.

One second-grade teacher performed a memorable experiment, pretending to sneeze into her hand while covering that hand with red glitter. Giving the students high-fives and pats on the back resulted in the spread of the red glitter, which the teacher explained represents the spread of germs.

We love that glitter experiment and recommend using GlitterBug products to continue emphasizing the importance of handwashing to children and adults alike!

Sources:

http://www.ourmidland.com/lifestyles/article/Siebert-Scrub-Club-encourages-students-to-wash-11039325.php

https://www.brevis.com/glitterbug

Handwashing Saves Lives

Patient and physician co-washing may increase clinic hand washing

April 2, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

Accountability.

And partnership.

We know that when we have both, good things usually occur.

The March/April 2017 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine discusses a new approach to outpatient hand washing involving that involves both partnership and accountability: patient and physician co-washing.

And preliminary studies show that this practice may increase hand washing.

Gregory A. Doyle, M.D. (from West Virginia University in Morgantown), and his colleagues tested a new approach involving patient and physician hand washing.

Clinicians offered sanitizer to the patient and used the sanitizer to wash their own hands in front of the patient.

Data were included from 384 questionnaires: 184 from phase 1 (pre-intervention) and 200 from phase 2 (post-intervention).

The researchers found that, according to patients, doctors washed their hands 96.6 and 99.5 percent of the time before examining them pre-intervention and post-intervention, respectively.

Overall, 98.7 percent of the time patients endorsed the importance of hand washing.

“Further research is recommended to determine whether ‘co-washing’ enhances clinic hand washing or hand washing at home by patients, and whether it can reduce infection rates,” the authors write.

Want more information about hand hygiene and overall health? Check out these book at brevis.com!

Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

Watch the First Annual GlitterBug Idol Handwashing Contest sponsored by Brevis Corporation!

April 2, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

Did you know the mouth is the dirtiest part of the body.

A close second?

The hands.

Recently, Brevis sponsored the first first annual “Glitterbug Idol” handwashing competition.

“The goal is to educate everyone,” said Barry Short from Brevis , the company that organized this year’s inaugural event. “Most people think they’re a pro at hand washing after several years, but that is rarely the case.”

When they’re done washing, contestants rub their hands with GlitterBug Potion. Their hands are checked under a blacklight, which reveals residue of the lotion and, thus, any spots they’ve not cleaned.

It’s amazing how many spots are missed, Short points out. “Sometimes they’ll get the harder spots and forget the obvious, like the backs of their hands,” he says.

GlitterBug Gel and GlitterBug Potion are excellent products to aid in teaching proper hand hygiene to kids and adults alike.

Both are intended to show how effective your current hand-cleaning methods are, and in turn, both products teach better techniques for hand-washing.

Do you have any other fun ideas for teaching hand hygiene? Please comment below!

Handwashing Saves Lives

Hand hygiene hacks—how to make hand washing fun for kids!

March 30, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

Good handwashing techniques are important to prevent infection.

Many adults would likely say they know how to wash their hands; after all, it’s something they’ve been doing since they were kids.

Most of these same adults would say children need to learn how to properly wash their hands.

But how do you make it fun for everyone, while preventing the spread of germs?

Check out Clutterbug‘s fun soap tutorial here:

So, now you have made it fun. But how can you tell if it was effective?

GlitterBug Gel and GlitterBug Potion are excellent products to aid in teaching proper hand hygiene to kids and adults alike.

Both are intended to show how effective your current hand-cleaning methods are, and in turn, both products teach better techniques for hand-washing.

Which product you need depends on how you’re cleaning your hands. If you mainly use hand sanitizer, you should use GlitterBug Gel. If you usually wash with soap and water, GlitterBug Potion is for you.

So have fun—and be clean!

Do you have any other fun ideas on hand hygiene? Please comment below!

Handwashing Saves Lives

Paper towels, warm-air dryers, and modern jet-air dryers: which is most hygenic?

March 17, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

We’ve all seen been there.

We’ve just washed our hands in a public restroom, and we are scratching our heads (figuratively, of course, as our hands are still wet) because we have two options for drying our hands: an air dryer or a paper towel dispenser.

Image courtesy of Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/hand-dryers-paper-dispenser-toilet-100786/

Which is better? And why?

This is a great question. The most hygenic way to dry hands has been a controversial area in the realm of hand washing.

For a long time, it was believed that hand dryers were the most hygienic means of drying hands (since it doesn’t require touching anything). However, the University of Westminster conducted a study in 2008 that suggests using paper towels could actually be more hygienic!

Image courtesy of Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/hand-dryer-air-hygiene-blowing-36896/

The study compared paper towels, warm-air dryers, and modern jet-air dryers. It concluded that warm-air dryers actually increased bacteria on the fingertips by 194%, and jet air dryers by 42%, while paper towels reduced finger pad bacteria by up to 76%.

Basically, the study showed that the air produced by the dryers could actually be spreading micro-bacteria!

(It should be noted that the study was sponsored by the European Tissue Symposium (ETS), a trade body representing 90 percent of Europe’s tissue industry, however. You can read more about it HERE.)

So, how do you prefer to dry your hands, and why? Let us know in the comments below!

Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

Handwashing: A History

February 16, 2017 brevis-admin Leave a comment

The benefits of proper hand hygiene are well-documented. From teaching it to children in schools and homes, to requiring it of employees in health care and food service industries, handwashing is an ongoing topic of discussion in several professional and personal settings.

How long have we been doing this? When did humanity begin to learn the importance of hand washing?

In 1847 a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis was working at a hospital in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Semmelweis suspected a link between the high incidence of postpartum fever and death among patients, and the interns who cared for those patients…interns who also, as part of their duties, performed autopsies. After having the interns disinfect their hands with a chlorinated lime solution, Dr. Semmelweis saw an immediate reduction in fatal postpartum fever among patients. His findings, however, were met with rejection and ridicule. He was let go from the hospital, and the harassment he received in the Vienna medical community drove him to Budapest. Eventually he was committed to a mental institution, where he died. It wasn’t until 1859, when Louis Pasteur– a chemist, not a doctor– developed his germ theory of disease, that the advantages of handwashing were recognized.

Today we know the benefits of handwashing: many transient microorganisms are easily removed with good hygiene practices, and proper hand washing greatly reduces the risk of healthcare associated infections. We know we should wash our hands prior to handling or eating food, after changing a diaper or using the restroom, after coughing or sneezing, after playing outdoors, after playing with animals, and any other time our hands may have been contaminated.

Hand washing is most effective when done correctly. While washing hands, many often miss fingertips, thumbs, the backs of hands, and wrists. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends at least 20 seconds of hand washing to remove disease-causing germs.

Are you washing your hands effectively? If you need a refresher course, be sure to check out GlitterBug Gel and Potion.

Sources:

http://ravallirepublic.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_09d6305c-d22e-11e6-9cb9-5336ed144387.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z9kj2hv#ztn487h

https://www.cdc.gov/features/handwashing/

http://www.brevis.com/blog/2016/08/glitterbug-gel-or-potion-that-is-the-question/

Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

Can Being Cold Make You Sick?

December 23, 2016 brevis-admin Leave a comment

We bundle up when it’s cold outside so we can stay comfortable by being warm. But does staying warm also contribute to being healthy?

Prolonged exposure to cold can lead to serious health problems like hypothermia and frostbite. Infants and older adults are particularly susceptible to sickness in winter months. But the common cold is caused by rhinovirus, which replicates more readily at cooler temperatures– like in a nasal cavity, rather than a place closer to a warmer core body temperature.

Ellen Foxman, an assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, and her colleagues have embarked on a study to determine whether colder temperatures make the virus more effective or the immune system less effective. Examining the innate immune system (present in every cell) in airways in mice, and in human cells, yielded similar results: at a warmer core body temperature, innate immune pathways blocking viral growth are more active, and an enzyme that degrades the viral genome works better.

So go ahead and put that scarf around your nose– the warmth might help you avoid that cold after all. Even more, Foxman recommends washing your hands so germs aren’t transmitted to your eyes, nose, or mouth. She explains, “If the virus isn’t in your nose, it can’t cause infection.”

Sources:

http://www.popsci.com/can-being-cold-really-make-you-sick

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/index.html

Hand Hygiene, Infection prevention

What About Drying Your Hands?

Image November 26, 2016 brevis-admin Leave a comment

Have you ever noticed someone exiting a restroom while shaking their wet hands? Is drying your hands important after you wash your hands? Maybe you’ve done it, too– you’ve taken the time to properly wash, but you’re in a hurry, and don’t want to take the extra time to get paper towels or stand near an air dryer.

Hand drying is an important part of hand hygiene, and shouldn’t be skipped. The reason is simple: germs can be transferred more easily to and from wet hands than dry hands.

Which method, then, should you choose? Should you dry your hands with towels (paper or otherwise), or use an air dryer? There isn’t conclusive research on this topic, as most studies compare residual microbes (not just germs) remaining on hands following different drying methods. Microbes are tiny living organisms which may or may not cause disease, and it has not been proven that removing microbes from hands is linked to better health.

What is clear, however, is the point that using a clean towel or air drying hands is the proper final step in effective hand-washing. So the next time you’re tempted to shake your hands dry or rub your hands on your clothes, pause and take the 60 seconds or so needed to face the world with clean, dry hands.

GlitterBug handwashing products

Source:
Show me the science handwashing (cdc.gov)

Food-borne illness

Tips for a Clean and Healthy Thanksgiving

November 22, 2016 brevis-admin Leave a comment

This week families and friends will gather to give thanks, make memories, and share delicious meals. Whether you’re hosting or traveling, you can take precautions to help protect your loved ones from sharing any sickness during your visits.

Safely handle the turkey Frozen turkeys should be thawed in cold water (changed every 30 minutes), never on a countertop. Cooking your turkey should be done in an oven set to at least 325° F, and cooking time will vary depending on the weight of the bird. The turkey is done when it has reached an internal temperature of 165° F (use a digital thermometer, and check the turkey’s thickest areas of the breast, thigh, and wing joint).

Keep all kitchen areas clean Wash utensils, food prep areas, and, yes, HANDS. Hot water and soap will get rid of illness-causing bacteria. It’s especially important to ALWAYS wash your hands and all equipment before and after working with raw meat, poultry, or seafood so you don’t spread bacteria that live in these uncooked foods.

Don’t ignore the leftovers Separate cooked foods into small containers, and refrigerate or freeze immediately. In smaller portions, they’ll be preserved faster and more evenly, and later they’ll be easier to reheat as needed.

Food handling errors and inadequate cooking are the most common problems leading to poultry-associated foodborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. Properly handling food and keeping up with cleaning up will help keep those illnesses at bay.

Pass the turkey, not the germs. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Sources:

http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/clean_living/thanksgiving_tips.aspx

http://www.cdc.gov/features/turkeytime/

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/groups/consumers.html

Hand Hygiene, Handwashing Saves Lives

Sing a Song About Hand-Washing

October 27, 2016 brevis-admin Leave a comment

Songs get stuck in our heads and we remember all sorts of things, from useless lyrics, to rules of grammar (Schoolhouse Rock, Anyone?). We use a song to teach the alphabet to children, so why not use songs to teach other important information?

Nigerian pop singer Sunny Neji decided to use his influence to help teach people the importance of hand hygiene. “People love music, so if I could construct a lovely melody and put in some memorable words, it could stick in people’s minds faster.”

The result? An upbeat song called, “Wash Your Hands O!”

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Lyrics like, “Prevention is cheaper than cure,” or, “Dirty hands, they carry disease,” will likely make kids and adults smile or even laugh, but you have to admit: the message is clear, and the tune is catchy.

Infection Prevention & Hand Hygiene Resources