At a time when sanitation related diseases like cholera has hit the nation, hand washing should be our main priority.

Speaking on JoyNews’ sanitation campaign, ‘Clean Communities’, Theodora Adomako-Adjei, Extension Services Coordinator for Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), advised the public that hand washing can save lives.

She said the public is at high risk of contracting all sorts of diseases as the hands act as disease vectors. She explained, as people move out from their homes, they touch the door knobs, car handles, stair railings that other people have already touched. They also come into contact with bacteria that cause diseases, which means the only way people can avoid transmitting the bacteria their hands pick up, is by washing their hands with soap and water.

Theodora Adomako-Adjei said apart from the normal times that one would wash their hands; there are critical times that demand hand washing. These critical times are before one comes into contact with food, after visiting the toilet and before serving someone food.

She added that it is advisable to wash hands within the interval of every four hours as the bacteria thrives within those times after coming into contact with it.

She again counseled that “we should also ensure that we wash our hands with soap and water after coming from the toilet even if we just entered to pick something up.”

Touching on Ebola, which is yet to find its way to Ghana, Theodora Adomako-Adjei said hand washing is the only best preventive measure; “when one comes into contact with the Ebola virus by hand, a simple hand wash with soap can kill the virus.”

She therefore advised the public to make hand washing part of us to prevent diseases.