HSE develop 'eye-catching' handwashing posters for schools

The posters come in English and Ireland.

The HSE has developed “eye-catching” new posters for schools to remind pupils to wash their hands.

The posters, available in English and Irish, were developed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and distributed to all schools.

The HSE said that younger children can catch Covid-19 and can spread the virus to others, but this is less common than with older children and adults.

They added that children are at increased risk for catching many other infections because they:

• tend to sneeze and cough into their hands.
• their immune systems that have not yet had the experience of dealing with many germs.
• have a lot of contact with each other when playing and learning.
• younger children may suck their thumb, rub their eyes and put things in their mouths.

The HSE said the posters “are aimed at assisting teachers and crèches to teach some of the key hand hygiene messages. 

“The new hand hygiene posters complement the respiratory etiquette posters that we distributed to schools earlier this year”.

Dr John Cuddihy, Interim Director at the HPSC, said it's "so important that we do everything" to protect children’s health.

“Teaching hand hygiene will help reduce the spread of infections, including Covid-19, in schools and home.

“Good respiratory and hand hygiene can help parents reduce the risk of having to stay home from work due to their child’s or their own illness.

“However if you are sick it is important to stay home from work or school. The HSE website Undertheweather.ie has lots of help and advice on managing simple illnesses at home.” 

Professor Martin Cormican, HSE National Lead for Infection Control, added: “Children need to go to school and spend time with other children for normal healthy development.

“We can’t avoid all the risk that bugs will spread when children are being children, but we can make that risk as small as possible without spoiling all the fun and all the learning.

“As well as teaching children to cough and sneeze into their elbow or a tissue it’s important they know how to clean their hands.” 

He continued that it is “important to tell children that hand sanitiser is good for hands that look clean but you need soap and water if you can see dirt.

“Hand sanitiser contains alcohol and chemicals so please don't leave it where young children might swallow it and keep alcohol away from flames.”