Hygiene tips

Hygiene in flu weather: an overview

Proper hygiene during cold season is especially important. On the one hand, so that you do not infect yourself. On the other hand, you also prevent infections in others, if you are already sick. Some basic rules are generally known. To give you an overview, we have summarized all the important points. You can get more hygiene tips in our video.

7 Hygiene Tips

Tip 1: Keep your distance

Especially if you are not feeling well yourself, it is important that you keep your distance from other people so that you don’t infect them with it. If they want to hug you or shake your hand as a greeting, point out to them that you are sick and don’t want to infect them. If you are healthy but notice that others around you are coughing and sniffling, keep your distance. Wash and disinfect your hands after you have been in contact with items used by a sick person. That’s one of the hygiene tips everyone knows after the last COVID years.

Tip 2: Keep your hands out of your face

The next of our hygiene tips is especially important for yourself to stay healthy: unwashed hands do not belong on your face. They transmit bacteria and viruses, which easily enter the body through the mucous membranes in the eyes, nose and mouth. For the same reason, you should always disinfect open wounds and cover them hygienically.

Tip 3: Hygiene when coughing and sneezing

When you have a cold, it is important to protect others and yourself by spreading bacteria as little as possible when you cough or sneeze. That’s why you should never put your hand in front of your mouth, but sneeze into the crook of your arm or a handkerchief so that your viruses don’t spread to the next object you pick up. To prevent bacteria from spreading to yourself, we also recommend that you regularly take care of your own hygiene, for example, by using mouthwashes to prevent bacteria from entering your body through the oral mucosa.

Tip 4: Wash your hands regularly

It goes without saying that you should wash your hands after using the toilet. But also when cooking and eating, bacteria can easily get from your hands to your own food or that of others. If you have had contact with sick people, coughed yourself or blown your nose, you should also wash your hands as soon as possible.

Tip 5: Wash your hands correctly

But not only the “if” is important, but also the “how”: To get rid of all pathogens, you have to wash your hands properly. That means getting your hands wet, then spreading soap on them for about 20-30 seconds. This takes about as long as singing “Happy Birthday to you” three times in a row. Pick someone to congratulate! Afterwards, wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and dry them with a clean cloth.

Tip 6: Hygiene at home

Hygiene in the kitchen

In the kitchen, everyone should make sure that you don’t use the same dishes as the sick person and wash dirty plates and the like hot and with detergent. Also, it is better if the person who is sick does not do the dishes or cook.

Hygiene when doing the laundry

If you live with a sick person, you should make sure that towels are changed more often. After use, they should be washed thoroughly with hot water detergent. Temperatures above 60 degrees kill bacteria. In addition, you can use special hygienic detergent for bed linen and pyjamas, for example. It also helps to regularly disinfect door handles and other areas that are used by everyone.

Tip 7: Ventilate

A good indoor climate also prevents bacteria and viruses from spreading. The well-known shock ventilation comes into play here. At regular intervals, you should open the windows for a few minutes and let fresh air pass through. That’s the last of our 7 hygiene tips.

Important questions about hygiene

How do I use hygiene detergents?

In combination with hot water, hygiene detergents ensure that your laundry is free of germs. This is especially important for bed linen of sick, maybe even bedridden people. The laundry is soaked in the detergent for at least 15 minutes and washed at at least 60 degrees. Additional decontamination detergent is then no longer needed.

Hygiene and disinfection: what’s the difference?

Sometimes they are used interchangeably, but actually the two terms describe two different things. Strictly speaking, hygiene simply means that something is clean, but not necessarily free of germs. Disinfection, on the other hand, means killing viruses and bacteria to prevent disease from spreading. Accordingly, wiping doorknobs with a damp rag would be a hygienic measure, while for disinfection you still need an appropriate agent that kills germs. In numbers: Wiping removes between 10 and 90% of germs from the surface, depending on how thorough you are and how resistant the germs are. By disinfecting, you remove over 99.999%, which is very close to a germ-free surface.

How does disinfectant work?

Now you might be wondering how a disinfectant can remove such a large amount of germs, while regular soap manages much less. That’s because disinfectant penetrates the cell walls of germs and kills them from the inside. That is why it is especially important that these agents are used correctly. Because if the germs are not completely killed, they develop a resistance to these agents and thus cannot be killed in this way in the future.

How do I prevent pathogens from spreading?

As we have already seen, high temperatures and fresh air are good ways to kill germs or prevent them from spreading further. Especially in damp rooms, such as the bathroom, you should also make sure to keep everything dry. Mold and other germs spread more quickly in damp conditions, and even if they don’t always make you sick directly, your immune system will still be weakened and you’ll be more susceptible to colds and flu. For the same reason, you should also check your fridge and fruit basket regularly and throw moldy food in the trash. Because they’re not just dangerous if you eat them. A moldy orange releases spores into the air that will harm your lungs if you breathe them in.

What else can I do to stay healthy?

If a weak immune system means you catch diseases more easily, it makes sense that you need a strong immune system to stay healthy. As always, there are three things you should pay special attention to here: exercise, sleep, and healthy food. An effective way to get fit is to jump rope, for example. If you don’t have the right sports equipment for this, then check out our jump rope test! If you can’t find the time to cook healthy food during the week, we recommend that you prepare everything one day on the weekend. That way, you’ll have enough time on the other 6 days of the week to enjoy a healthy meal. If you don’t know exactly how Meal Prep works yet, you can get instructions here.