1. Keep Wounds Clean
Abrasions and cuts can easily become infected if you don't treat them promptly and properly. If you suffer a scrape, cut or animal bite, you should wash the area thoroughly with soap and water, then treat it using a peroxide solution. Keep the site clean by applying peroxide once or twice daily, and call your doctor if the area becomes painful, swells or produces pus.
2. Practice Safer Sex
Having unprotected sex makes you vulnerable to a wide range of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, ranging from urinary tract infections to genital herpes, HPV and HIV. Practice and master proper condom application, and always use protection if you're having sexual contact. It's a good idea to observe safer sex practices, even if you're in a monogamous relationship with a committed partner.
3. Avoid Communicable Diseases
Both bacterial and viral infections can be transmitted from one person to another. It's important for you to avoid close interpersonal contact with individuals fighting an infection, particularly if you have a weakened immune system.
Sharing drinks, food, plates and utensils increases your risk of contracting a communicable bacterial or viral infection. You can also prevent disease transmission by avoiding hand-to-hand contact and washing your hands thoroughly throughout the day using hot water and soap, or sanitizing with an antibacterial hand cleanser.
4. Good Personal Hygiene Is Key
To ward off skin infections, you should bathe on a daily basis, change clothes frequently, and avoid wearing the same socks or undergarments for multiple days. After you shower, make sure that you dry yourself off completely before getting dressed, especially beneath your fingernails and toenails, as microbes can grow there and will thrive if you leave these regions moist. In addition, you shouldn't share towels with other people, since you might pick up microorganisms left behind by another person.
5. Vaccines Can Prevent Infections
If you're traveling, talk to your doctor about vaccines you might need to get to avoid contracting infectious diseases. The type of vaccines you'll need depends on where you're going and the types of diseases that are common in that part of the world, but a wide range of vaccines is available through your local medical network that can protect you and your family from yellow fever, rubella, mumps, typhoid and more.
