Health, Hygiene and First Aid
Hygiene
Daily bath, clean teeth, short nails, a clean uniform, safe drinking water (boiled or filtered), covered food, mosquito nets, waste disposal and sanitary latrines. Diseases spread by air, water, food, insects and contact.
First aid essentials
First aid is immediate help before medical aid; its aims are to preserve life, prevent worsening and promote recovery. The sequence is DRABC: Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation.
- Bleeding - direct pressure with a clean cloth, elevate, pressure bandage; tourniquet only as a last resort.
- Fracture - immobilise with a splint; never reset the bone.
- Burn - cool with clean running water for 10–20 minutes and cover lightly; no ghee, oil, toothpaste or ice.
- Snake bite - keep the limb still and below heart level, remove rings, shift fast; no tourniquet, no cutting, no sucking.
- Unconscious but breathing - recovery position.
- Not breathing - CPR, compressions 100–120 per minute, depth 5–6 cm, ratio 30:2.
Worked example
A classmate falls on glass and his forearm is bleeding. Reason: check the danger (broken glass), use a barrier, apply direct pressure with a clean cloth, elevate the arm, bandage over the cloth and send for help; do not pull out deeply embedded glass. Bleeding control comes before cleaning the wound.
Traps
Applying ghee or ice to burns; cutting or tying a tourniquet on a snake bite; giving water to an unconscious person; writing CPR as 15:2 or at 50 compressions a minute.