What are the risks of poor hand hygiene?

Young children are placed at a substantial risk of illness through the transfer of germs within school, and are often unaware of the dangers of sub-standard hand washing. As a consequence, on average, children contract three to eight colds each year.

Hand washing correctly with soap could protect about one in three young children who get sick with diarrhoea and almost one in five young children with respiratory infections like pneumonia. [2] This emphasises how important it is for children to learn how to wash their hands as early as possible, in order to minimise the risk of contracting anything more harmful than a common cold.

It is important to note that water alone does not clean hands effectively. Over 75% of people either don’t wash their hands at all or don’t use soap to clean their hands properly. [3] This lack of education about the importance of soap when washing their hands could be contributing heavily to the spread of infectious diseases in school. A survey by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine unearthed that only 63.8% of primary school children regularly washed their hands with soap at school, a figure which dropped to 39% for secondary school children.

[4] Inadequate hand washing can also impact absenteeism in schools. The largest contributor to absences from school is illness, which constitutes almost 60% of all absences across schools in England. Annually, nearly 22 million school days are lost each year due to the common cold. Teachers and children alike are missing school because of easily avoidable illnesses, which could be greatly reduced by correct hand hygiene techniques being taught, particularly in primary schools. Absenteeism in children can massively impact their learning and class performance. Absenteeism also affects parents, who are forced to take time off to look after their ill children.