Squeamish? Don't Read This

3000. The number of different germs found on the average person's hands.

32. Percentage of men who actually did was their hands in bathrooms according to electronic recording devices.

8. Percentage of credit cards that are grossly contaminated.

11. Percentage of hands that are so grossly contaminated they are carrying as many germs as a dirty toilet bowl.

100. Percentage of us who need to stop calling people who handwash 'weird' or 'OCD'.

Wash Your Hands! 

(I also wrote and published a series of posts a few years ago. You may read them here.)

Each year, diarrheal diseases and pneumonia together kill almost 3.5 million children under five in developing countries. Children from the poorest 20 percent of households are more than 10 times as likely to die as children from the richest 20 percent of households. Hands are the principal carriers of disease-causing germs: if widely practiced - and based on scientific research and intensively monitored trials at both household and school levels - it is estimated that and handwashing with soap could avert one million of those deaths. Washing hands with soap after using the toilet or cleaning a child and before handling food can reduce rates of diarrheal disease by nearly one-half and rates of respiratory infection by about one-quarter. Handwashing can also prevent skin infections, eye infections, intestinal worms, SARS, and avian flu. It can also benefit people living with HIV/AIDS.

Learn more at UN Global Handwashing