Is it safe to wash your anus with water and your (ungloved) hand after pooping, assuming (of course) that you don’t touch anything with your hand until you wash it with soap and water?
I’m currently traveling in India. It’s common here, instead of using toilet paper after deification, to pour water down your back and use your left hand to wipe your anus clean of feces. I googled to find information from medical professionals to understand if this is safe or not, but I (surprisingly) couldn’t find any information on the Internet about this.
Of course, let’s assume that we’re doing this properly:
- You only use one hand (typically your left hand), so feces only contaminates one hand.
- You don’t touch anything in the bathroom (eg pitcher, faucet, door knob, etc) with your soiled left hand until after you wash your hands
- You wash your hands properly, following best-practices: using soap and water, scrubbing vigorously for at least 20 seconds.
I’m less interested in your personal opinion, and more interested if any studies have been done analyzing the efficacy of safety in this scenario, using a proper scientific study.
Have any studies been done to analyze if it’s safe to wipe your ass with your hand (and wash your hands properly with soap and water after)?
ok, well, that’s definitely not safe. But I guess you have a good immune system.
But I’m not just asking for my own safety; I’m asking for the safety of others. If I wipe my asshole with my hand and then wash my hands really well with soap, then I go to the kitchen to prepare a (raw) salad for a group of people, including some who are immunocompromised – is it possible that I could cause someone to get sick because of fecal-to-mouth transfer? Or is washing my hands with soap and water sufficient to prevent that potential vector of disease?
As opposed to what, bleaching your hands?
The risk of contamination is higher than if you didn’t just touch shit, but washing your hands is better than not and considering toilet paper isn’t an option I doubt like a full surgical scrub station is either.
Wash your hands, good and long, in warm water with antibacterial soap. Make sure to get under your nails, and keep your nails short and trim. If the local sewage system can handle it, try and find some paper product you can use to wipe - but even with paper there is still contamination.
Long answer probably considering the locals do it.