Why toilets remove jewelry and makeup to treat coronavirus patients
Since the confinement began, mobile phones are filled daily with hundreds of messages about the coronavirus. Many memes, many jokes and many recommendations that one does not always know whether to follow or not. One of them is the audio of a woman who claims to have joined the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid to help the health team in the fight against the virus, which has spread through WhatsApp. "One very important thing that they have not said on television, which I found out today, is that the coronavirus adheres to moisturizers, makeup and other things. I have to come with my face completely washed, without any cream. on the hands —so you know because I don't think anyone knows this— and another thing that adheres a lot and very well is to rings, bracelets, earrings, piercings.You have to remove everything, even your nails, because it adheres a lot to the enamel," he says in the voice note.
The security measures that she mentions are real, but there are nuances. Not wearing jewelry or makeup is a recommendation made to hospital health personnel. In fact, it is the usual procedure to enter the operating room, although now it has been extrapolated to the rest of the centers, explains Reyes Calzado, a pulmonologist at the Santa María de Osakidetza Hospital (Basque Country). "It's a hygiene measure. Operating rooms are the most sterile spaces we have in hospitals, you have to enter with your hair tied back and as few things as possible on top, no jewelry or makeup, and your nails unpainted. With the coronavirus hospitals try to stay as sterile as possible," he explains. It also "is applicable to those who have patients or people considered at risk in their care at home, who must also always wear gloves," says Pablo Lázaro, dermatologist and member of the board of directors of the Madrid College of Physicians.
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Scientific literature supports the need to remove jewelry to maintain maximum hygiene, they explain from the College of Physicians of Madrid. Rings and bracelets prevent specialists from properly washing their hands and this can leave bacteria and other types of microorganisms on them. Also not wearing nail polish. "It is a surgical measure, which now, given the situation, has been transferred to the other areas of the hospitals," says Lázaro, who adds that it serves to prevent the skin of the toilets from becoming irritated when the makeup is mixed with the products that used to treat patients. On the contrary, moisturizing creams can be helpful after hand washing. Its use is even recommended. "They prevent the appearance of irritation and skin problems that can encourage the virus to stay on it longer," adds Lázaro.
But the fact that they are measured in hospitals does not necessarily mean that healthy people confined to their homes should ditch their rings or remove their nail polish. In fact, experts explain that there is almost no scientific evidence to support that viruses adhere more easily to cosmetic products. "The only study I have found is very old — from 1988 — and it has nothing to do with the coronavirus," explains Lázaro, who adds that "there is nothing to show that the virus survives better on makeup than on the skin. ". Despite this and the fact that both specialists agree that the recommendation mentioned in the audio is not for the general population (unless they have patients at home), Lázaro recalls that "the fewer products we touch, the less contagion there will be." Especially when most of the makeup goes on the face, a place on the body that, however difficult it may be, we should avoid touching.
