Germ Free Health

Handwashing is one of the highest-value health behaviours ever identified, and it is still done badly by most people most of the time.

Doing it properly

Soap and running water, twenty seconds, including the backs of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails. Soap works by physically breaking apart the fatty envelope of many pathogens - which is why plain soap is as effective as antibacterial soap for everyday use, and why the twenty seconds matters more than the product.

The moments that matter most: before cooking and eating, after the toilet, after handling raw meat, after coming home, and around anyone who is ill.

Food safety

Separate boards for raw meat and vegetables. Cook thoroughly. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours - shorter in Indian heat. Reheat properly rather than warming through. And boil or properly filter drinking water where the supply is not reliable.

A very clean kitchen and dirty hands is a losing combination. The hands are what touch the food.

Where "germ-free" goes too far

Constant disinfection of every surface is unnecessary and probably counterproductive. Children need exposure to ordinary microbes for normal immune development, and heavy disinfectant use contributes to resistance. The goal is sensible hygiene, not sterility.

The most important one

Vaccination. It prevents more infectious disease than every other measure on this page combined, and India's childhood immunisation schedule is free at government facilities.