Name: The importance of handwashing: 6 Minute English
Uploaded: 2020-05-07T18:27:25.000Z
Duration: 6 min 35 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning

OK. It's a riddle. I'm as light as a feather

Hmmm… as light as a feather but no one can

The answer is – germs! With the outbreak

of coronavirus, people around the world have

rediscovered the importance of fighting germs

In this programme we'll be the discussing

the importance of handwashing in the prevention

of germs and viruses. And we'll start off

by meeting the first person to realise that

keeping hands clean can really help prevent

Ah… do you mean the19th century Hungarian

wards germ-free and he had a very interesting

life. But do you know what happened to him

B. He ended up in hospital for mentally ill

C. He started the first company to produce

Dr Semmelweiss sounds like a scientific hero

OK. We'll find out later if you were right.

What's for sure is that Ignaz Semmelweiss

was a hero to Val Curtis, a director at the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Handwashing has been my life for the last

thirty years working on trying to improve hygiene,

was really the first to identify the importance

trying to understand how diseases get spread

and what the best way of preventing it is,

and handwashing jumped out as being the most

important means of preventing infections,

Val's work is all about improving hygiene

- practices for maintaining health and preventing

And she was clearly influenced by the work

of Dr Semmelweiss because she calls him her

'patron saint' - a kind of guide and protector

believed to give special help or inspiration.

But Dr Semmelweiss is also a good example

of science communication. Getting the message

out so people understand the importance of

hygiene is difficult. And 'wash your hands'

jumped out - or made a strong impact - as

that showed the evidence that handwashing

could save a million lives that actually people

started to take it seriously and handwashing

became a big important issue internationally.

So for me the lesson from Semmelweiss is:

of doing things wrongly but patiently get

the data out there and tell your story in

The idea that handwashing is an essential

part of hygiene is supported by scientific

evidence - the facts and information used

to show that a belief is true - in this case,

global issue - or topic of discussion - especially

in places without access to clean sanitation

Val also mentions that if you want people

to listen to your message, it's better to

present the evidence in a positive, scientific

way instead of screaming and shouting - speaking

in a forceful or even angry way to convince