(ARA) - With the cold and flu season here, one of the most vulnerable populations are young children attending schools and daycare. To keep kids healthy, handwashing continues to be one of the most simple, yet effective ways to fight disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The main way that illnesses like colds and flu are spread is from person-to-person in respiratory droplets of coughs or sneezes, called ìdroplet spread.î This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person move through the air and come in contact with the mouth or nose of people nearby, or when germs land on shared items such as toys, desks and doorknobs. If a person fails to wash their hands after touching these surfaces, they can become vulnerable if they touch their eyes, mouth or nose.

To help kids protect themselves, kids and their parents can now benefit by getting help from The Scrub Club, an animated Web site (www.scrubclub.org) developed by the not-for-profit NSF International. The new Web site teaches kids and their parents the importance of washing hands in the fight against infections and food borne diseases through interactive games, activities, a handwashing song and even an animated webisode.

The Scrub Club was created to raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing,î says William Fisher, vice president at NSF International, a public health and safety organization that independently certifies products and writes standards. ìBy offering children, parents and teachers a fun and educational Web site, our goal is to reduce the number of school sick days and ultimately improve the overall hygiene of children and adults.

Six Steps to Proper Handwashing

The Scrub Club Web site features seven "soaper-hero" kids -- Hot Shot, Chill, Squeaks, Taki, Scruff, Tank and P.T. -- that transform to represent each of the six steps to proper handwashing.

Step 1: Wash with warm water. Hot Shot and Chill turn into hot and cold faucets and then combine to make the warm water essential for proper handwashing.
Step 2: Apply soap -- bar or pump are both fine. Squeaks can transform into various forms of soap, from bars of all sizes to pumps of all kinds.
Step 3: Wash for a full 20 seconds, rubbing hands together to lather soap. Taki becomes a clock that counts down the required 20 seconds for thorough handwashing.
Step 4: Clean around your fingernails, using a nail brush if you have one. Scruff reminds kids that hands arenít clean until the nails are clean.
Step 5: Rinse away soap with warm water. Tank turns into a sink and serves as a reminder to rinse away germs.
Step 6: Dry with paper towels or warm air dryer. P.T. transforms herself into paper towels.

At www.scrubclub.org, kids see the six steps to proper handwashing in action through an interactive webisode and can also sing along to the Scrub Club theme song. The first webisode, The Good, the BAC and the Ugly, finds the Scrub Club battling the loathsome, but lovable character BAC (from the Partnership for Food Safety Education's Fight BAC! food safety public education campaign), and one of his partners in grime, Sal Monella, in a Wild-West themed adventure.

Interactive games, including one that features the evil villain Influenza Enzo called Stop Fluiní Around, teach children how illnesses and food borne diseases are spread and how to prevent them. Additionally, Scrub Club visitors can also download materials such as a Scrub Club membership card, posters, stickers, games and activities as well educational materials for teachers and information for parents that not only enhance the site but also make it fun for kids to return to the site time and time again. For additional information, visit www.scrubclub.org. Other helpful resources include www.cdc.gov/flu/school, www.fightbac.org and www.cleanhandscoalition.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content