After 3 waves of the pandemic, we are witnessing what experts call hygiene fatigue. The common man does not want to sanitize his hands frequently, he does not want to take extreme caution anymore. And this is where the concept of targeted hygiene must be discussed.
So this month, we had a detailed conversation about this topic with, Dr Lisa Ackerly, Director of Medical & Scientific Engagement, Hygiene Research & Development, Reckitt.
Dr. Lisa is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner with a degree in Environmental Health and a PhD in behaviour in relation to hygiene. She has worked as an enforcement officer, in UK local and Central Government, in academia, and for 30 years in private practice advising the hospitality and leisure industry, acting as safety adviser for UK Hospitality until coming to work full time as the Director of Medical and Scientific Engagement, Hygiene for Reckitt. She is also known as The Hygiene Doctor and has worked extensively in the mass media to give advice to businesses and consumers about hygiene.
What are the kind of insights in hygiene behaviour and consumer expectations you find now, after three waves of the pandemic?
What we found after three waves of the pandemic is that more and more people are becoming aware of hygiene. They understand that they need to wash their hands and they understand the need to decontaminate surfaces. I think there is an expectation that other people are also going to do the same. When people go into public spaces, there is an expectation that others must have sanitized their hands and that the cleaning standards are good. There is also an expectation that not only cleaning, but disinfection is also taking place. There is certainly a raised awareness but we have also seen hygiene fatigue. People have had enough and they are starting to change their attitude towards hygiene. It is important that we keep encouraging people to be hygienic because it has had such an amazing effect on not just COVID-19, but also on other infectious diseases.
What are the insights that are leading to your current work in hygiene?
What we are really passionate about is something called targeted hygiene. What this means is that you actually take hygiene measures at specific places and times, when they are most needed. Instead of telling people, they have to frequently wash their hands, it is better to educate them about the best times to wash their hands. People get overwhelmed when they have to do so much more “hygiene” when all they need to do is make hygiene interventions at the right times to make sure they are more effective.
This course could be more sustainable as well because we are using hygiene products when we really need to. So it is quite interesting how we make people aware of the times when it is more important to wash their hands rather than having them wash their hands after every set interval.
We have to give them the tools to understand a personal risk assessment about when these interventions need to take place.
What are the principles of targeted hygiene?
The idea behind targeted hygiene is to think about the key moments when we need to take action to break the chain of infection. It is important to understand how we stop those nasty microbes, germs or pathogens from getting into our bodies. It is understanding the route of infection or the journey of the germ and trying to break it to stop us from getting ill. So we can’t help the fact that there are microbes everywhere and we can’t help the fact that there are pathogens in many places but what we can do is recognize when the high-risk moments are and take action accordingly. Hygiene is a simple action that will help to break the chain of infection. Targeted hygiene is all about when to take that action.
For example, if we arrive at a building, the time to take action in terms of hand hygiene is at that moment when we come out of public transport, when we get into the building or when we get home. By doing this, we have taken an intervention that is going to stop the germs from the outside from getting into the inside.
Another example could be before we eat. We know from our childhood that it is not appropriate to eat with dirty hands But of course, people do that. They rush off into a meeting and if there’s a snack that is being offered, they take it without washing their hands. That’s where I think targeted hygiene comes in. It’s those moments when we need to ask ourselves if our hands are clean enough.
We also know that on average, people touch their faces around 23 times in an hour. The route of transmission for respiratory viruses is through the eyes, the nose, and the mucous membranes of the mouth in terms of transferring from the hands to the body. Of course, we have the coughs, sneezes and aerosols to think about but it is actually quite easy to infect yourself when you have the virus on your hands. It is important that people understand the route of infection. Once they understand this, they can effectively protect themselves.
Targeted hygiene doesn’t mean we have to be sterile all the time. It is about focussing on the real key moments and it will make a difference.
What should be the priorities in protection now for businesses?
There are two foods of thought here. The first one is let’s make people safe. If people are mingling more, there’s maintaining less social distancing or not wearing masks because they are not required to, it means that there is a greater potential for respiratory viruses to be spread. Businesses can take action to prevent the spread. Let us make sure that when people arrive at the business facility, they sanitize their hands. Let’s make sure that hand sanitiser dispensers are in the right places, where people cannot ignore or forget them. Let’s make sure that people do not have to walk across the room or to a washroom to sanitise their hands. Businesses can also put some nice messaging that encourages people to sanitize their hands.
The other thing is that people going back to work need to feel more confident. We have been away from the office for a long time and need to have confidence restored that it is okay to return to the office, that someone is looking after us, that someone is looking into the aspect of safety for us and making this transition safer for us.
It is important that we communicate this to anyone entering the building. Whether it is a commercial operation such as a hospitality business or an office, let us make sure that all the people coming in are aware of the safety precautions we are taking for them. It helps if you are using a well-known brand because people will recognize that and feel comforted by what the business is doing for them.
Whilst we can’t see these pathogens because they are invisible to the naked eye, if we see dirt around, we are not going to feel comfortable. So the standard of visual cleanliness needs to be good and I think the extra layer is the disinfection of frequently touched surfaces. Seeing people going around and using a known brand to disinfect surfaces frequently is going to add another layer of security and confidence to people returning or work or hospitality businesses.
Now that restrictions are eased, what are the challenges you foresee businesses facing?
I think the difficulty is that we will have an increased level of people going into work with COVID-19. Remember that sometimes you don’t get any symptoms, we’re not testing as much and so infected people might be coming into the workplace and they could spread it to other people. We are also not having the face coverings on so there is no protection from aerosols and droplets. I have noticed that people seem to be coughing or sneezing without protecting other people from that cough or sneeze. If you are infected, that’s potentially dangerous. I think one of the things we need to do is educate and remind people of the cough and sneeze etiquette.
We do have a challenge because more people are now around. While we are talking, this pandemic has not gone away and as more people return to work, some will be carrying this virus regardless of their vaccination status and regardless of whether they have got any symptoms.
What are the best practices you notice in businesses that tend to be highly vulnerable like travel, hospitality, education, gyms, etc?
I think the first thing is to make sure that everyone knows they are taking action - informing people of all the hygiene measures you are taking, messaging when people arrive, having the right sanitiser at the right place for people to use and I have noticed that some businesses are taking that away. This is not the right time to do that. This is the time to actually have more people sanitizing their hands by giving them a sanitiser that they like to use.
Let’s make it easy for people. Let us make it something that is pleasant to use and most importantly, is available to everyone because it often happens that you touch the sanitising station only to realise that it is empty and end up dirtying your hands even more.
In terms of the workplace, you can encourage healthy and hygienic behaviour by leaving wipes around. So having wipes in workstations, in kitchens or in the gyms encourages people to clean after themselves and to look after others as well.
In hospitality too, if you have hand sanitisers in the right places, you have visibility that this business is using a good sanitising product that works against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
What are the top myths or missteps that you still see sometimes in cleaning and hygiene?
The most important thing is to clean at the right place and at the right time. Indiscriminate spraying of chemicals all over the place is not necessary. It is concentrating on those high touch-points and key frequencies.
The other thing I have noticed is that people use gloves without realizing that the gloves themselves could be a vector for an infectious disease to go from one place to another. Dirty gloves are just as bad as dirty hands and they could even make us forget the importance of hand hygiene. We think that the gloves are protecting us while they are just moving the virus around. I’d like to see the end of gloves unless they have a purpose like to protect the hands from the application of chemicals.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this recording has been provided for general informational purposes only, and should not be construed as advice or relied upon for any particular course of action. Such information is provided without warranty as to its accuracy, efficacy or completeness. The presentations, dialogue and videos solely reflect the views of the presenters.
This is an excerpt from our one-on-one conversation with Dr. Lisa Ackerly. To view the entire interview, click here (link to video interview).