Why is hand hygiene important?

Today (5^th May) is world hand hygiene day – a day declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise the awareness of hand hygiene. 

According to WHO, every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections (HCAI) - and there are thousands of people who die every day worldwide from infections acquired while receiving healthcare. It’s thought that more than half of these infections could be prevented by care-givers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

Hand hygiene has played a significant role in the reduction of infections for more than 150 years; even back in 1847, a Hungarian doctor demonstrated that hand washing greatly reduced the number of infections in newborn babies.

Hands are one of the main modes for transmission of germs within healthcare; our hands touch thousands of surfaces every day spreading microorganisms from one surface or person to another. This is why hand hygiene is one of the most important stages in reducing the risk of infection for our patients - when it is performed at key points it removes these organisms before they are spread.

The key moments that are essential for all heath care workers (HCW) to follow when caring for a patient are:

1. Before touching a patient
• This helps to protect the patient from any organisms that the HCW has on their hands
2. Before a clean/ aseptic procedure
• This helps to protect the patient from organisms, including their own, entering their body
3. After body fluid exposure
• This is to protect the HCW from infection from the patients’ blood or body fluids
4. After touching a patient
• This is to protect the HCW and health care environment from any organisms which are on the patient
5. After touching the patient surroundings
• This is to protect the HCW from any organisms which may be present on items within the patients environment
6. Before and after removal of gloves
• Gloves are not a replacement for hand hygiene as organisms are still spread on the surface of the glove, and it is difficult to not touch the outside of the glove when removing them which spread the organisms the HCW’s hands

Want to know more? Have a look at our internal infection prevention and control (IPC) pages on East24.

Published 5th May, 2016