WHO sees importance of global hand hygiene

In an attempt to help counter the spread of healthcare-associated (nosocomial) infections, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is launching the Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme "Clean Care is Safer Care".

A core programme of the World Alliance for Patient Safety, designed to assist countries in the development of their health agendas, it brings together the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care with ongoing actions on safe water, sanitation and waste management. More than 100 technical experts from around the world have participated in the development of the Hand Hygiene guidelines, which will be finalised only after testing in the six WHO regions (Africa; The Americas; Europe; Eastern Mediterranean; South-East Asia and Western Pacific). Despite its relative simplicity, hand hygiene remains the primary measure in the reduction of nosocomial infection and the spread of antimicrobial resistance, and is therefore likely to be included among the WHO's essential measures for responding to pandemic influenza, although transmission by large droplets as a result of coughing or sneezing is considered the major route of influenza spread. According to the WHO, at any given time more than 1.4m people worldwide are seriously ill from such infections, and 5-10% of patients admitted to hospitals in developed countries, or up to 25% in some developing countries, acquire an infection during their stay.