Hand Hygiene & Gloves

• Gloves do not provide any added protection against respiratory viruses, as they do not enter the body through skin/hands, only through mucous membranes. 
• Gloves can actually cause more harm than benefit. The virus can transfer on to gloves, just like it can on to your hands. Touching surfaces or your face with a contaminated glove can then transfer the virus.  It is safer to avoid wearing gloves, touch only what you need to touch and wash your hands frequently.  If you still choose to wear gloves, again only touch what you need to touch.
• Gloves cannot be washed and must be thrown after a single use. Do not use hand sanitizer on gloves. Instead, it is much safer and more effective to practice good hand hygiene and cleaning measures.

Generally, gloves are only recommended for health care workers to either protect their patients from germs on the worker's hands, or to protect the worker's hands from a patient's bodily fluids. There are also certain workplace situations where gloves are required.

For non-health care workers, gloves are recommended if you are:

• cleaning and disinfecting your home with a product that requires gloves, as some cleaning products have the ability to be absorbed through the skin. 
• caring for someone who is sick or doing their laundry. However, the gloves must be changed frequently, as well as between tasks and not worn for a long period of time. 

Gloves are only to be worn for short periods of time and only for one specific task.  Once that task is done, gloves must be removed properly and then hand hygiene performed.

Things to remember when you are wearing gloves:

• Clean your hands BEFORE putting on and AFTER taking off gloves.
• Avoid touching your face.
• Throw disposable gloves out right away.
• Never reuse, wash or sanitize disposable gloves.