World Hand Hygiene Day 2022: �Unite For Safety - Clean Your Hands�

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Highlights:

• Hand hygiene is one of the most important measures to prevent and control infections
• Even the COVID-19 pandemic gave us a better understanding of the importance of hand hygiene
• To prioritize hand washing, the World Health Organization (WHO) promotes world Hand Hygiene Day on May 5 every year

Every year on May 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds people about the importance of hand hygiene and calls people in the health sector to celebrate world hand hygiene day (1^✔).

Fight Strong Together Against Germs

World hand hygiene day is a global campaign, which was launched back in 2009, to maintain the promotion, visibility, and sustainability of hand hygiene in health care and bring people across the globe together in support of hand hygiene improvement around the world. The five fingers in a hand were chosen as the symbol of world hand hygiene day (2^✔).

Hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) in healthcare facilities protect the health and safety of patients and health workers.

‘World hand hygiene day observed on May 5 calls for the joint creation of an environment where hand hygiene and infection prevention and control are valued and taken seriously.’

Less than 200 years ago, the majority of experts still believed that diseases spread via germs. Today, no one believes in the existence of germs. Bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens can be dangerous to us in the present scenario and hands play an essential role in their spread. Even the COVID-19 pandemic showed the role of hand hygiene in the prevention of disease transmission.

Promote a Safe and Quality Climate with Good Hand Hygiene

Good hand hygiene not only ensures clean hands but also creates an organizational climate in which value is placed on safety and infection prevention. This can only be achieved by working together.

That's why this year's World Hand Hygiene Day's motto is Unite for safety - clean your hands! By practicing good hand hygiene, we set an example for others. In this way, set in motion a chain reaction against chains of infection. The more people who work together for this goal, the better the outcome is (3^✔) .

Clean Facts

• Adequate hand hygiene can prevent up to 50% of hospital-acquired infections.
• 1 in 4 health facilities globally lacks a basic water supply - affecting the health care of 1.8 billion people.
• Even in high-income countries, hand hygiene compliance rarely exceeds 70%.
• In Europe, 8.9 million nosocomial infections occur annually in acute and long-term care facilities (4^✔) .

Five Principles for Hand Hygiene

Experts have developed five guiding principles that help hand hygiene to prevent infections (5^✔) :

1. Hand hygiene is not just hand washing, skincare and gloves also play a big part.
2. It is also important to clean hands correctly by completely wetting the hands and rubbing them until dry.
3. For healthcare workers, hand washing is not an alternative to hand disinfection; both are important for them.
4. Healthy skin is key for effective hand hygiene and so take good care of your hands.
5. Gloves serve to protect both the healthcare worker and the treated patient from infection but are not an absolute barrier to pathogens.

Feel free to spread to share your knowledge, and celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day in your facilities and on social media.

Upload your selfie to your own social media channels using the hashtag #HandHygiene #UniteForSafety #TogetherStrongAgainstGerms #MissionInfectionPrevention and mention @WHO.

Join the world hand hygiene celebration and create an organizational climate in which hand hygiene and infection prevention are lived as essential components today and in the future.

Don't forget to wash your hands!!!!

References:

1. World Hand Hygiene Day 2022 - (https:www.unwater.org/world-hand-hygiene-day-2022/)
2. Save Lives - Clean Your Hands - (https:www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day)
3. Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings - (https:www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/index.html)
4. Hand Hygiene for Health Professionals - (https:www.health.state.mn.us/people/handhygiene/hcp/index.html)
5. Clean your hands often! - (https:apic.org/monthly_alerts/clean-your-hands-often/)

Source: Medindia

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