A new handwashing song is helping to ensure people wash their hands correctly. Professor and Centre Director Peter Vuust and Associate Professor Bjørn Petersen from the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University has written the Danish version of the WHO’s song which intends to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

2020.05.14 | Hella Kastbjerg

The handwashing song helps people remeber to wash their hands correctly.

Scrub your palms, between the fingers. Wash the back, wash the back.

These are the first lines of the verse in a new handwashing song which aims to make sure that we continue to wash our hands in the right way.

The song is written to the melody of the well-known Danish children’s song "Mester Jakob" and follows the WHO’s guidelines for handwashing.

The text was written by Professor and Centre Director Peter Vuust and Associate Professor Bjørn Petersen from the Center for Music in the Brain and the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University and the Royal Academy of Music.

Good hand hygiene continues to be the most effective weapon against the spread of viruses and bacteria. To ensure that we continue to wash hands in the right way, even when society is gradually re-opened, the WHO encourages parents and children to sing the ‘Handwashing Song’ in their own language while they wash their hands.

The song is part of an international initiative that includes versions in 28 different languages. The Danish text has been validated by Professor Leif Østergaard from Aarhus University. The international handwashing song was presented at the WHO’s hand hygiene day on 5 May

cleanhandssavelives.org/hand-washing-song/

See the ”Handwashing Song” here: youtu.be/0pGCIIpLXLg

The Danish version is played and sung by Thor Møller Christensen and Cecilie Møller.

The Handwashing song

Scrub your palms, between the fingers

Wash the back, wash the back

Scrub them upside-down

Thumb attack, thumb attack

Contact:

Professor Peter Vuust
Center for Music in the Brain,
Aarhus University
petervuust@gmail.com
(+45) 2711 9471