5 May, Global Hand Hygiene Day

By Cristiano Antonino On May 5, 2021

Hand hygiene is one of the most effective actions you can take to reduce the spread of pathogens and prevent infections, including the COVID-19 virus,” the World Health Organization says on its website on the occasion of the World Hand Hygiene Day which is celebrated on May 5, under the slogan “Save lives: wash your hands”

The Day underscores the role everyone can play in preventing infection, washing their hands in a regular and frequent way, and mobilizes people around the world to increase the adherence to this effective, but simple and cheap, instrument of prevention.

Global Hand Hygiene Day: 2020 Campaign objectives

As part of the 2020 campaign, WHO and partners aim to:

make hand hygiene a global priority

inspire hand hygiene and behavior change

engage with health care workers in their role in clean care and the prevention of infections.

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Safe hands challenge

Anyone can support the campaign by promoting the information material present on the organization’s portal, taking part in the #SafeHandsChallenge, launched on social media a few weeks ago, or also taking a photo and sharing it under the hashtag #HandHygiene.

Particular attention is given, on the occasion of the day devoted to them, to nurses and obstetricians.

The WHO urges everyone to applaud them, at noon on May 5, to thank them and recognize their fundamental role in furnishing health care attentive to hygiene.

In Italy, in order to mark the day, the Higher Health Institute has made a video:

Preventible infections

In our country every year there are an estimated 200,000 cases of germ-resistant infection, four out of 100 people in longterm care and six out of 100 in hospital or at home have an infection related to assistance.

Some 30-50% of these could be preventable and one of the main ways is, in fact, hand hygiene.

But the average consumption of cleaning solutions in health care facilities is 15 ml per patient per day, below the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization (20 ml).

A gesture that is very often taken for granted, washing your hands must be one often, not only by health operators such as nurses and obstetricians, but by the whole population.

Common mistakes regarding hand hygiene

There are several mistakes that people make when washing their hands, and which must be avoided, above all at a time of coronavirus emergency.

In order to be carried out in a correct way, washing with water and soap (or with an alcohol-based disinfectant with at least 60% of alcohol) must not last less than 40-60 seconds.

Furthermore, you must not forget to clean the spaces between the fingers and to remove rings.

At the end of the washing, you mustn’t touch taps or handles, but use a handkerchief or the tip of your elbow to make sure your hands don’t come into contact with dirty surfaces.

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