Students at Panania’s St. Christopher’s Catholic Primary School brushed up on the best way to get perfectly clean, germ free hands recently and are now considered experts in hand hygiene.
Dr Matthew Malone, Head of Department for the High Risk Foot Service at Liverpool Hospital – and dad to kindy student Hugh – visited the school to teach the kids about the importance of hand washing particularly at a time when COVID-19 numbers are again on the rise.
Using GlitterBug hand-hygiene training kits, which features a powder formula that shows up under UV light, Dr Malone showed the students just how important it is to wash their hands properly.
“We have a big clinical service, so we’re very strict on hand hygiene,” he said.
“We had the kits because we were doing a study on doctors to look at how we can reduce contamination and reinforcing that with clinicians.
“I started using the kits at home on my boys as guinea pigs, trying to get them to see how easy germs can spread.
“They loved it, and I thought it’s a really important lesson for all children.”
“These kids may never get symptoms but they might pass germs on so it’s a good idea to get them into good habits of washing their hands whenever they can.”
Dr Malone taught both students and teachers alike the best techniques to wash hands as well as how long to wash them for to ensure they didn’t potentially spread germs around the community.
Once their hands were washed, the lights went out and Dr Malone’s UV light was used to show them just how easy it is to miss spots.
He then took the light around the room, shocking the class with how easily germs can spread from one student to another.
St. Christopher’s Principal Jamie Wahab said it was great Dr Malone was able to visit the school and educate them in hand hygiene.
“We’re very lucky to have such an expert teaching our kindergartners how to properly wash their hands,” he said.
“Now we look forward to all of our students going home and showing their parents how it’s done.”
