Building good hygiene habits into a daily routine is essential for people with a bleeding disorder and their caregivers. Proper storage and handling of your medication, as well as daily hygiene routines will help you and your family to stay healthy.
This section of Hygiene and Infection Control covers:
Infection Control in Your Home
The Basics of Hand Washing
Washing your hands with the proper technique is the best way to help prevent the spread of infection and illness. Clean hands can stop germs spreading from one person to another in all settings—from your home and school to your friends’ house and hospitals.1
Washing hands with soap and warm water is the best way to reduce the number of germs. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs.1
- Before, during, and after making food
- Before eating
- After using the toilet
- After changing diapers or cleaning a child who has used the toilet
- Before and after touching someone who is sick
- After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
- After touching an animal or animal waste
- After touching garbage
- Before and after treating a cut or wound
- Before, during, and after giving or receiving treatment for a bleeding disorder
- Washing hands is easy and takes only a few minutes.
- Wet your hands with warm, clean running water and apply soap.
- Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub them well. Scrub the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
- Continue rubbing your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? You might know the Happy Birthday song. Hum or sing it from beginning to end twice.
- Rinse your hands well under running water.
- Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry.
- Apply the product to the palm of one hand.
- Rub your hands together.
- Rub the product over all surfaces of your hands and fingers until the hands are dry.
Infusions and Injections
When either infusing or injecting medication, first make sure you have clean hands. Wash your hands with soap and water before giving the treatment.
Sterile is different than clean--sterile means all germs are gone.
Most medical equipment used during an infusion or injection must be sterile. The packaging around your infusion or injection supplies keeps the equipment sterile until opened. When you open the package, the supplies may become contaminated. The infusion or injection needle becomes contaminated when it touches the non-sterile table. If you accidentally contaminate an infusion or injection needle, don’t use it. A contaminated item must be thrown away when it is no longer sterile.
Infection Control in the Home
These are tips for a clean home environment. Your Hemophilia Treatment Center (HTC) team may also have additional tips for keeping your home environment clean:
- Clean the table or other area where you’ll be doing the infusion with a 1:10 disinfectant bleach solution.
- Wash your hands before and after the infusion or injection.
- Wear gloves when mixing your treatment.
- Clean any blood or body fluid spills with a 1:10 disinfectant bleach solution.
- Wear gloves when cleaning up all blood spills.
- Place bloody gauze in the sharp’s container.
- Wash all contaminated fabric household goods.
- Follow the directions on the container for used and nonsterile needles, or “sharps.”
- Make sure the special container for sharp items cannot be easily damaged or opened.
- Close the sharps container when it is ¾ full and find a new sharps container. Throw away the full container according to state law. This may include disposing of it at a special site. Most homecare companies will pick up a full container and replace it with a new one.
- When traveling, always take your sharps container.
- Make sure that you and other household members receive vaccines for these, especially if you are using medications manufactured from blood products.
- Schedule your immunization appointments though your HTC or with your primary health care provider.
- Get tested. Testing is important for all household members who have contact with medications manufactured from blood products or bodily fluids.
- Schedule testing through your HTC or your primary health care provider.
- Talk with your HTC team about what steps to take if household members are exposed to blood or bodily fluids containing hepatitis A, B, or C, or HIV.
- Report any exposure to your HTC or primary health care provider immediately. Some states also require reporting the exposure to your local department of health.
- If you have been exposed talk to your health care provider about possible treatments.
- Talk to your health care provider regularly for updates on new vaccines, procedures, and treatments that could benefit you.
- Burton, M., Cobb, E., Donachie, P., Judah, G., Curtis, V., & Schmidt, W. P. (2011). The effect of handwashing with water or soap on bacterial contamination of hands. International journal of environmental research and public health, 8(1), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8010097