Making a habit of washing your hands with soap and running water after doing activities is the best way to maintain health according to Amesh A. Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security .
As quoted in the Well and Good broadcast on Monday (5/5), he said that hands can be a means for various organisms to enter the body.
"Washing your hands is an easy way to reduce the level of contamination and reduce your chances of getting an infection," he said.
Infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine William Schaffner says washing your hands with soap and running water can really get rid of germs.
Hand sanitizers can be helpful when traveling, but they are not as effective as soap and water in removing germs from hands, according to Thomas Russo, a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York, United States.
He gave the example of hand sanitizers that cannot eliminate norovirus, which can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea.
So, once conditions permit, it is best to wash your hands again using soap and running water after using hand sanitizer.