Washing hands with soap and water have been a great precaution in order to stop growing bacteria and to stop spreading diseases. Some people are not considering how important the use of soap and water clean hands before and after meal. The lack of awareness of how and why hand washing is important is certainly spoiling health of many people, especially children.
A significant number of catastrophic diseases can develop from one person to other by contaminated hands. Few diseases with the lack of this awareness cause Chlamydia, Hepatitis A, Influenza, Salmonella, which may alleviate or limit to certain extent through an appropriate hand washing at necessary times.
A thorough hand washing should include rubbing hands, scrubbing all surfaces including hands, wrists, between the fingers and under the fingernails (WHO, n.d), Ideally it should last around 20 seconds but even only 15 seconds of soap and water hand washing, can reduce bacterial counts by approximately 90% (Harvard Health Publications, 2007). When finish hand washing in a public bathroom, it is a good idea to turn off the faucet with a disposable towel or tissue because it is likely to contain germs. Source
Some evidence states can stop the amount of spreading diseases than with hot water when it comes to hands washing. We usually think hot water washing for hands may protect us from spreading bacteria; however, water is water regardless of its temperature, when it comes to the concept of hand washing; however, they proclaim that they need further research to explicitly affirm it.
People need to feel comfortable when they are washing their hands but as far as effectiveness, this study shows us that the temperature of the water used didn't matter.Source
Hand sanitizer has become popular for a decade. Well, it may have significant benefits but researchers think it does give you proper resistance when you are caught with cold. However, all sanitizers do not work the same way there are some specifications.
The ethanol-containing hand disinfectants were significantly more effective than hand washing with water or with soap and water for removal of detectable rhinovirus for the hands in this study. Source
On the other hand, we can see there are really over sensitization happening especially with the overprotective mothers. Mothers are often protective about their kids, which is essential; however, when it comes to hand washing it may give you negative effects than positive effects.
Bacteria exposure is not always a bad thing to be avoided and actually helps us in many ways, since trillions of bacteria contribute to our inner microbiomes, which are responsible for much of our immunity. Our immune systems need practice, which is partially why rates of various illnesses have gone up as we’ve come to fear germs more and moreSource
So, adequate usage of soap and water along with the mentioned sanitizer offers to many health benefits.