Twenty seconds

About this video

Someone on the bus coughs, and a week later half the class has the same cold. A germ can't move far on its own, so it rides on something. When it gets into your body and starts to multiply, that is an infection.

The main routes are five. Through the air: coughs, sneezes, even breathing and talking send out drops and tiny particles, and the measles virus can stay in the air of a room for up to two hours after a sick person has left. By touch: from hands to door handles, phones and other hands, then to your mouth, nose or eyes. In food and water, when germs from faeces get into them. By insect bites: malaria is caused by a parasite spread by mosquitoes, with about 282 million cases and about 610,000 deaths in 2024. And through blood, for example a shared needle.

Hands are one of the busiest routes, because we touch our faces many times a day. The US CDC says: wet your hands, add soap, scrub every part, backs, between the fingers and under the nails, for at least 20 seconds, then rinse and dry. That is about as long as humming Happy Birthday twice. When people are taught to wash their hands, about a third fewer get diarrhoea and about a fifth fewer get colds and other chest and throat infections.

Hand gel with at least 60% alcohol is good when there is no soap and water, but it works poorly on very dirty or greasy hands and on some germs such as norovirus. Cough or sneeze into a tissue or the inside of your elbow, not your hand. This video goes with the lesson How Germs Spread in Health Level 1 on Knaph.

Transcript

1. 0:00Someone on the bus coughs. A week later, half the class has the same cold. How did the germ get there?
2. 0:08Germs can't travel far on their own. They ride on the air, on hands and surfaces, in food and water, on insect bites, and in blood. Measles can stay in the air of a room for up to two hours.
3. 0:24Wet your hands and add soap. Scrub every part, the backs, between the fingers, under the nails, for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse and dry. That is about as long as humming Happy Birthday twice.
4. 0:46It works. When people learn to wash their hands, about a third fewer get diarrhoea, and about a fifth fewer get colds.
5. 0:54No sink? Hand gel with at least sixty percent alcohol helps, but not on greasy hands or every germ. Cough into a tissue or your elbow, not your hand.
6. 1:06Germs ride on air, hands, food, water and insects. Twenty seconds of soap blocks a busy route.