To reduce the spread of potentially life-threatening infections in healthcare facilities, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is calling on health workers to make sure they uphold high standards of hand hygiene.
In developing countries, 15% of hospital patients contract a healthcare-associated infection. More than 5,500 health facilities in 35 countries of the Americas are participating in the "Save lives: clean your hands" campaign
Washington, D.C., 5 May 2015 (PAHO/WHO) — To reduce the spread of potentially life-threatening infections in healthcare facilities, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is calling on health workers to make sure they uphold high standards of hand hygiene.
In developing countries, healthcare-associated infections affect an estimated 15% of hospital patients and 34% of patients in intensive-care units.
Ten years ago today, WHO launched its "Save lives: clean your hands" campaign as part of its "Clean care is safer care" initiative. This year, more than 17,700 hospitals and health facilities in 171 countries around the world are supporting the campaign. Of these, 5,506 facilities are in the region of the Americas, a level of participation exceeded only by the European region.
"Good hand hygiene is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce healthcare-associated infections," said Dr. Reynaldo Holder, PAHO/WHO regional advisor on hospitals and integrated health care delivery. "It's critically important that health workers practice good hand hygiene to protect patients and themselves from the spread of infections."
WHO cites 10 reasons to support the "Save lives: clean your hands" campaign:
- Hand hygiene at the right times saves lives.
- Hand hygiene in health care has saved millions of lives in recent years.
- Hand hygiene is a quality indicator of safe healthcare systems.
- Healthcare problems, like healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which are often invisible but nevertheless still occur, are political and social challenges that we must address now.
- Infections can be stopped through good hand hygiene, and patient and health worker harm can be prevented for less than $10.
- Affordable life-saving technology is available! Alcohol-based hand rub, which costs approximately $3 per bottle, can prevent HAI and millions of deaths every year.
- #handhygiene exists in the media, which means it exists as an important topic, whether due to HAI or outbreaks of deadly diseases like Ebola.
- Embedding specific moments for hand hygiene action into health worker workflow makes it easier to do the right thing every minute, every hour, every day.
- Infection prevention is at the heart of strengthening healthcare systems. Hand hygiene is core to all interventions, from inserting an invasive device to managing a surgical wound or giving an injection.
- The social epidemic has already begun to spread with SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands, a successful global campaign promoting hand hygiene action at the point of patient care.
