Good personal hygiene is crucial if you want to protect yourself from getting gastro or infectious diseases such as colds and flu or the more serious COVID-19. Washing your hands with soap will remove the germs that can infect you and cause an illness. It will also prevent the spread of disease to other people. The germs responsible for spreading a disease can be passed on when you touch other people, or get feces (poo) on your hands, eat or touch contaminated food, or come into contact with dirty surfaces or objects.