The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine undertook the survey on Britons’ hand-washing habits. The survey shows many Britons don’t wash their hands properly after visiting the washroom.  

October 15, is considered as the Global Hand-Washing Day to promote clean hands to ward off infection, specifically in developing countries.

In five British cities researchers approached 409 commuters waiting at bus stops outside major train stations. In 28% of the samples the bacteria which were prominently found in the tests were Entercoccus, Ecoli, Klebsiella and Panteoa.

The survey result shows that the percentage of the unclean fell with latitude, among men 34% of Liverpudlian men tested positive for faecal bacteria, 21% in Birmingham, 15 % in Cardiff and 6% in London.

Study shows that women hygiene is more consistent than men. On average, 27 %of women had faecal bacteria on their hands, Liverpudlians the dirtiest at 31 % and Londoners the cleanest at 21%. It also shows that the bus commuters were more likely to test positive for faecal bacteria than train commuters.

Director of the Health Protection Agency's Centre for Infections (HPA), Mike Catchpole says, “Hand washing is one of the most important ways of controlling the spread of infections, especially those that cause diarrhea and vomiting, colds and flu.”

In UK, norovirus is the most common cause for gastrointestinal disease and a million of people are affected every year. The men of the northern part of England need to move towards a cleaner and healthier life style, survey suggests.