When it comes to washing your hands, 20 is the magic number… seconds that is.
If in doubt, that’s as long as it’ll take you to hum along to Happy Birthday twice in a row.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society said scrubbing your hands for 20 seconds is the only way to get rid of viruses and bacteria that can cause colds, flu, infections and upset stomachs.
It is calling for people to wash their hands more thoroughly as a way of cutting down the need for antibiotics, which are becoming less effective as bugs become increasingly resistant to them.
About a third of cases of diarrhea and 16 percent of respiratory infections can be prevented through good hand washing.
The RPS’s poll of more than 2,000 people found that 84 percent are not washing their hands for long enough.
Meanwhile, 65 percent do not always wash their hands before eating, and half do not wash them after touching animals including pets.
Some 32 percent do not wash their hands before preparing food and a fifth of people (21 percent) do not always wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
The new advice comes after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said people should aim for at least ten seconds after using the bathroom and before preparing food.
RPS president Ash Soni said: “We don’t wash our hands often enough for long enough to get rid of the bacteria that can cause illnesses.
“Even when we remain unaffected by the bugs we carry, if we don’t wash our hands we can transmit infections which then become a real problem for those who are more vulnerable, such as children and the elderly, who may then need to be prescribed antibiotics.
“If we can reduce the number of illnesses where antibiotics are needed, we can reduce antibiotic resistance by saving these important medicines for when they are really required.
“Antibiotics should not be given for viral infections but often still are, partly due to patient demand.
“It’s easy to pick up an infection and once ill, people often visit their GP to request antibiotics because they think they are not getting better quickly enough, when in fact infections can be expected to last longer than you might think.”
According to the RPS, sore throats last seven to eight days on average, ear infections last eight days, colds 14 days and a cough for 21 days.
It says people should look up the hand washing technique recommended by the NHS, which lasts for 20 seconds and includes the back of the hands.
Earlier this year a study found antibacterial hand wash is no better than soap at killing germs.
Scientists in the US also found cold water leaves hands just as clean as hot water.