Why do you need to wash your hands?

Answer 1

Your hands get bacteria (germs) on them from touching things. If you don't wash your hands, then you touch your mouth or you pick up food with your hands and eat the food, that bacteria can then get in your mouth, and some of it can be bad enough to make you very sick. There are some germs that you can have on your hands that can give you diarrhea, make you vomit, and just generally make you feel really lousy. Other types of bacteria can actually kill you. Many years ago, like in the 1500s and 1600s, doctors used to operate on people without washing their hands first. As a result, many of their patients died. Now that all doctors wash their hands before doing surgery, there is a much higher survival rate.