Covid-19: we do not use enough hydroalcoholic gel, alert the "Doctor with clean hands"

Having popularized the formulation of the hydroalcoholic gel twenty-five years ago earned it the nickname of Doctor clean hands.

Infectious disease and epidemiologist working in Switzerland, cleaning expert with the WHO, Didier Pittet was also tasked by Emmanuel Macron with autopsy the management of the Covid crisis in France.

His final report is expected in December but, already, the doctor is worried about a decline in hand hygiene, "udder" according to him to prevent the epidemic.

The Swiss epidemiologist Didier Pittet has been nicknamed “the Doctor with clean hands” ./AFP/Fabrice Coffrini.  

What makes you say we are letting our guard down?

PROFESSOR DIDIER PITTET.

The latest statistics from Public Health France show an increasingly strong support for wearing a mask.

So much the better, but at the same time, we see that the French who say they wash their hands regularly have fallen from nearly 80% during the first confinement to less than 70% for the second.

A figure to be halved to approach reality: when we self-assess, we double our hygiene practices.

The problem is that when they hide themselves, people say to themselves:

!

They artificially feel like they are totally protected and protecting others.

85% of the population claimed to respect the distance of one meter in the spring, against only 54% on the eve of the second confinement.

This is very worrying and it shows that behavior changes are not integrated.

In your book *, you write that the mask is not "the first line of defense" ...

The two breasts of prevention against the transmission of the virus are hand hygiene and physical distancing.

The mask is a very good additional ally, but on its own is not enough.

By the hands you touch the other directly, or indirectly, via a table, a handle, an elevator button where the virus can stay two to three hours, then you bring your fingers to the face.

But the importance given to washing them has waned since June.

As proof, in Geneva, we offer hydroalcoholic solutions on Saturdays in popular places.

At the start of the school year, we only managed to distribute six times less than after confinement.

For lack of a really sufficient campaign, people forgot everything during the summer.

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But what is the gauge for the hydroalcoholic gel?

Each French should use - at least - one bottle of 100 to 150 ml per week.

This is why the gel must be given away or sold at extremely low prices.

You have to rub it on your hands, starting with your fingertips.

However, Swiss data show that we consume less than 5% of what is needed.

No reason for the French to be different, and for Europeans in general, except those in the North, who are more sensitive to hand hygiene.

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How can we place this practice in our long-term memory?

This is the whole difficulty, as it has been to make people accept the wearing of seat belts in the car.

As behavior changes are a real science, sociologists and specialists must help us.

It will take major campaigns.

The more informed we are, the better we follow the instructions.

No need to make it complicated.

As soon as the restaurants reopen, not only will the hydroalcoholic gel be at the entrance, but everyone will have to come up against it!

The mimicry effect also plays a role.

I sent my son to the supermarket to do the experiment: if you rub your hands in front of a person, nine times out of ten they will imitate you.

And if you don't, neither does she, in almost the same proportion.

If I ran a business, I would give a 1 euro voucher to those who wash their hands on entering.

The hands, condition of a successful deconfinement, when a first peak is reached?

Yes, that is totally part of it, with an efficient testing system and especially the isolation that follows.

Deconfinement is an art in which learning to wash your hands is not optional.

At Christmas, you will probably have to have the glass of champagne in one hand, the hydroalcoholic solution in the other.

The risk is clear: if we do not respect it durably, we will have a third, then a fourth wave.

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