World Hand Hygiene Day is observed worldwide under the theme ‘Save Lives: Clean Your Hands’.
This global campaign launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 mobilizes people around the world to increase adherence to hand hygiene in health care facilities, thus protecting health care workers and patients from infections.
Each year the campaign saw progress on the importance of hand hygiene in health care globally.
WHO calls on everyone to be inspired by the global movement to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) as it is a practical and evidence-based approach with demonstrated impact on quality of care and patient safety across all levels of the health system.
WHO says hand hygiene is one of the most effective, affordable and universal tools we have to prevent the transmission of infections and provide high-quality, clean and safe medical care.
While medical gloves serve a vital role in preventing transmission of infection, for example when there is risk of exposure to blood and body fluids, they are not a substitute for cleaning hands at the right time.
WHO urges all to reinforce hand hygiene practices adding every US $ 1 invested in hand hygiene can yield up to US $ 24.6 in economic returns. Yet, 2 in 5 health care facilities still lack basic hand hygiene services where care is provided – putting 3.4 billion people at risk.
Improper glove use not only undermines infection prevention and control practices but also adds significantly to health-care waste. Much of this waste can be avoided by maintaining hand hygiene and using gloves only when necessary.
Gloves can become contaminated just like hands and are often misused, such as being worn indefinitely while health workers switch between patients or when they are performing multiple procedures for the same patient. Additionally, overuse of gloves contributes to environmental degradation.
An average university hospital in a developed country generates 1634 tons of health-care waste each year, which is equivalent to over 360 African elephants. Much of the waste could have been avoided if gloves were used properly and good hand hygiene was practiced. Most used gloves are considered infectious and require high-temperature incineration or specialized treatment, adding strain to already burdened waste management systems.
WHO urges to establish hand hygiene compliance as a national health system performance indicator by 2026 in line with the Global action plan and monitoring framework on infection prevention and control (IPC), 2024-2030 along national efforts on hand hygiene in health care by providing training on the use of gloves.
