World Hand Hygiene Day (WHHD) is a global healthcare event observed on 5th May to raise awareness and spread the importance of handwashing to prevent the spread of infections. The day also aims to unite people together to support hand hygiene improvement around the world.
- The campaign slogan for WHHD 2023 is “Accelerate action together. SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands”
- The campaign theme/theme of WHHD 2023 is “Together, we can accelerate action to prevent infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care and build a culture of safety and quality in which hand hygiene improvement is given high priority.
The annual observance of the WHHD is led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Background:
WHO launched an annual global campaign in 2009 called “Save Lives: Clean Your Hands,” which is celebrated as World Hand Hygiene Day on May 5th to spread the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare globally.
SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands:
i. SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands is an extension of the WHO First Global Patient Safety Challenge: Clean Care is Safer Care work which is now the WHO Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Technical and Clinical Hub unit.
ii. SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign, led by the WHO is to support health-care workers to improve hand hygiene in health care and to support the prevention of often life threatening HAI (Healthcare-Associated Infections).
World Hand Hygiene Day 2023:
i. WHHD 2023 focuses mainly on the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), motivated by their passion, values and strong social justice agendas, and often in close presence to the communities they serve, CSOs can lead and accelerate change at local, national and international levels.
ii. WHO encourages all CSOs to take part in the campaign and encourage the process of achieving effective hand hygiene and a goal of minimising the risk of infections and development of antimicrobial resistance in health care.
Note: Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are organized voluntary non-state institutions which mostly operate on non-profit basis.
Importance of Hand Hygiene:
i. Hands are the main pathways of germ transmission during health care.
ii. Appropriate hand hygiene prevents up to 50% of avoidable infections obtained during health care delivery, including those affecting the health workforce. Germs or infections can spread when:
- Touching the eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
- Â Prepare or eat food and drinks with unwashed hands
- Touch surfaces or objects that have germs on them
- Blowing the nose, cough, or sneezing into hands and then touching other people’s hands or common objects.
How to clean:
i. Cleaning hands by rubbing them with an alcohol-based formulation, if hands are not visibly dirty.
ii. Washing hands with soap and water when hands are visibly dirty with blood or other body fluids or after using the toilet.
About World Health Organization (WHO):
Founded in- 1948
Director General- Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland
