Apple introduced a new feature for its Apple Watch at WWDC by updating to watchOS 7: self-detection of hand washing. Although many do not value this novelty, it can have a very positive influence on our health.
The arrival of watchOS 7 brings with it a new function in our Apple Watch. The watch will be able to automatically detect when we wash our hands, and it will start a countdown that through sounds and vibrations will indicate the right time to finish that wash. The Apple Watch sensors will detect the movements of our hands when washing and will be in charge of monitoring if these movements are adequate and for the correct time (20 seconds). After reading comments in chats and social networks, the expected happened: many people despise this novelty because they consider it so obvious that it becomes useless. Sadly, handwashing is neither widespread nor well-done to think so.
A Little History
When someone imagines hand washing, the image of a surgeon washing his hands carefully before going into the operating room will surely cross his mind, then placing his hands up and having someone put the gloves on him. This image so repeated in series and movies has not been around for so long. It was not until 1847 when, thanks to Ignaz Semmelweis, hand washing became an essential step before any medical intervention.. At that time, many women fell ill after childbirth with "puerperal fever", a very serious infectious condition that caused the death of many women, even in the best hospitals with the most advanced medical care of the time.
Hand washing before exploring a patient. Semmelweis Center (Austria)
Dr. Semmelweis separated her motherhood into two parts: one attended only by midwives and the other only by doctors. He observed that the mortality of women from puerperal fever was much higher in the part attended by doctors. What was the reason for this difference? After studying many variables he found the cause. The doctors in the morning carried out practices with the corpses helping and teaching medical students. In the afternoon they attended to the deliveries of the women in the hospital. Between one activity and the other they did not wash their hands. Today it may seem somewhat amazing, but at that time nothing was known about how infections were transmitted.
A measure as basic as forcing doctors to wash their hands with a chlorine solution before each examination, in addition to the medical instruments used, which led to a drastic reduction in mortality from puerperal fever. Despite the fact that his studies were conclusive, both the medical society of his time and his own hospital did not support this measure.
A problem that still persists
Let's not see this situation of 1847 as something completely out of date. Hand washing continues to be one of the measures that would prevent more cases of disease worldwide. In some places because they cannot, in others because they do not want to, the hands are still the main agent responsible for most of the infections that we suffer throughout our lives. Let's not forget that our hands only touch our face, mouth, eyes ... but rather that they touch other people's hands, the food we eat and cook, or items that other people touch with their hands later. It is estimated that the percentage of people who wash their hands after using the bathroom is 19%, with that I have said it all.
Wash your hands with soap could prevent a third of the diarrhea suffered by children worldwide, and one in five pneumonia. Washing hands with soap and water in schools would prevent a large percentage of school absenteeism. And yes, I insist, with soap and water, because most people who wash their hands do so only with water. Hand washing would also help reduce antibiotic resistance, one of the problems we face today in modern medicine, since by reducing the incidence of infectious diseases, the use of antibiotics would be reduced in parallel.
They have to teach us to wash our hands
This is why this feature of the Apple Watch is so important. After several weeks using the watchOS 7 Beta I myself have noticed that at home I wash my hands worse than at work. The Apple Watch emits a sound when it detects that you wash your hands, and another sound along with a vibration when the recommended 20 seconds that the wash should last. While at work it was easy for me to do it, I did notice that at home my washes were much shorter, and it should not be that way. To wash your hands you have to apply soap and rub not only the palms of the hands, but also the back, between the fingers and under the nails. These movements must be repeated for 20 seconds, and hand drying is not included, obviously.