It may be October but did you know that the Flu season is still in full effect?! Flu Season rangers from Septemeber to December & doctors see a rise in cases as the weather gets colder. Unfounrtuanly at this time in the year most people have forgotten about the Flu already! AFC Urgent Cre Paramus would like to remind you about the flu & even if you got your flu shit already you are still at high risk of getting the Flu. Last Years Flu shot was about 80% effective, & we can only hope this year shot is at least that. Doctors recommend one easy form that can protect against the flu effectively; washing your hands.

How often do you wash your hands?

If you can count the number of times you wash your hands in the day odds are you aren’t washing your hands enough. Your hands come in contact with thousands of germs a day. We need to wash our hands much more than just after we use the bathroom. A couple of situations in which you should wash your hands are:

• After you play with a dog/animal
• After you take public transportation
• After you play outside
• After you share a utensil
• After you Shake hands with someone who’s sick

How should you wash your hands?

So now that we know when you should wash your hand’s let’s talk about how you should wash your hands. We have all seen this before, when someone throws water on their hands, shakes it off & then wipes them off. This literally does not make your hands any cleaner at all. To start you should be using warm water since warm water is known to kill germs. Next is to use soap, yes we know this seems obvious but some soaps actually do not combat germs. mke sure whichever soap you are using has some alcohol in it. Alcohol is one of the main ingredients that can kill a virus. The next is wash time. Im sure you can remember when you were a child & you learned to sing happy birthday while washing your hands, Well this is because of the rule that 30-45 seconds of washing your hands is ideal to kill off any germs that are on your hands! We here at AFC Urgent Care Paramus hope you take these tips & help yourself beat the Flu this year!