Hand Hygiene: NHS

Madeleine Moon Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alan. I commend the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills) for calling the debate. It is such a simple issue. We are taught from early childhood to wash our hands, and yet somehow it seems to get lost. It seems to have disappeared out of our daily practices. We are failing on one of the easiest ways of addressing so many conditions that are costing this country a huge amount and causing the NHS a terrible problem.

We are told every day whether we should take vitamins or whether we should drink red wine, which is either good for us or destroying our lives, and we are told what superfoods to eat, but a simple, life-changing thing that can be added to the daily routine is washing one’s hands on a regular basis. It is one of those bizarre things that came up during a quiz. The question was, “What is the fastest thing that a human being can do?” and the answer was sneezing. Apparently, a sneeze comes out at 100 mph and can spread across a huge area. Most people catch it in their hands and do not then think to wash them. We all know about washing our hands after going to the bathroom, but we somehow cough and sneeze into our hands and pass diseases on, particularly to those who are vulnerable, in the most frightening of ways.

Globally, poor hand-washing leads to 600,000 deaths a year. Another horrible statistic is that 28% of commuters across the UK have faecal bacteria on their hands. I dread to think who found that out and how they did it, but there we are. It takes just 30 seconds of washing to stop an infection being passed on to someone else and it can make huge difference. In Europe alone, 25,000 people a year die from infections resistant to antibiotics. Resistance to antibiotics is on the global agenda and hand hygiene is a way that we can actually reduce our dependence on antibiotics and prevent common illnesses such as food poisoning.

I want to bring to the Minister’s attention today a deeply concerning condition that sadly not many people seem to know about, but hand-washing really can make a difference to it. CMV, or cytomegalovirus, is a common virus that can infect anyone. Most people will not know they carry it, but if a pregnant woman contracts the virus, she can pass it on to her unborn child with catastrophic results. Almost 1,000 children are affected by the condition every year. CMV can cause miscarriage or stillbirth. Five out of 1,000 babies will die in their first year of life, and two to three babies a day are damaged by CMV, which was identified in 1956 by the same research team that discovered polio, mumps and rubella. There is no vaccine to deal with it, but we can prevent passing it on simply by washing our hands.

CMV is responsible for 25% of childhood hearing loss, as well as for vision loss, physical impairment, ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—behavioural and learning difficulties, and cerebral palsy. It is passed on by bodily fluids, mainly saliva and urine, often from small children. It is battled simply by washing hands in soap and water and by getting parents to understand that they must not share food, cutlery or drinks with their children. No parents, I hope, would think of changing a child’s nappy without washing their hands, but how many parents wipe a child’s nose without thinking to use a handwashing sanitiser or washing their hands? Parents should ensure that they wash their hands both before and after feeding a child. Those are simple ways to prevent dramatic changes.

Hand-washing can prevent diarrhoea, vomiting, food poisoning, the norovirus and MRSA. It is a simple way to change infection rates. We could save the NHS huge amounts of money. I am pleased that nurses are very conscious of it, but we almost need to have every patient watching for other people’s visitors and ensuring that they use the antibacterial washers as they enter the ward. The statistic mentioned by the hon. Member for Amber Valley—one in 16 patients acquires an infection—is horrific. That is not something that on the whole doctors have to combat; it is something that every one of us as patients, visitors and fellow citizens should take responsibility for tackling. I am delighted that we have had the opportunity to raise the profile of the issue today.