AN awareness campaign to highlight the importance of washing your hands will be launched next week by the Minister for Health, David Anderson MHK.

This year’s hand hygiene campaign – Keep ‘em Clean - will officially start at Noble’s Hospital on Monday, aiming to continue the work from previous years in raising awareness amongst patients, staff and the wider public on the importance of hand hygiene in both health settings and day to day life.

Children from St Mary’s School choir will sing the ‘Hand Washing Song’ and witness the chain of infection being cut as a launch to the campaign.

The campaign will stress a number of areas where hand hygiene is important to prevent the spread of infection not only in a hospital environment but also in public environments such as hotels and restaurants and at home.

There is a lot of advice available on how to wash your hands, how often and for how long. The basics are as follows:-

• before eating or touching food

• after using the bathroom

• after blowing your nose or coughing

• after touching pets or other animals

• after playing outside

• before and after visiting a sick relative or friend

The Isle of Man Department of Health will offer its own advice at Monday’s official launch of the campaign which will be reported afterwards on isleofman.com