Global Handwashing Day

On May 5th - World Hand Hygiene Day – the World Health Organization (WHO) released its first-ever research agenda on hand hygiene in health care. The WHO research for hand hygiene in health care 2023–2030: summary provides guidance on the highest priorities for research to gather further evidence on best approaches to improve hand hygiene practices during health care delivery, as well as to accelerate innovative solutions. During the two-years long consultative process with a large group of experts from around the world, 192 research priorities were identified, of which 178 achieved the consensus. The summary released on 5 May lists 21 highest research priorities in six key areas, including impact of communication on health workers’ behaviour, institutional safety climate, and impact of hand hygiene on health care-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). A full document covering all research priorities in the six identified domains will be issued at a later ...

Hand hygiene saves millions of lives every year when performed at the right moments during health care delivery. It is also a smart investment that offers exceptional return for each dollar invested. Clean care is a sign of respect to those who seek care, and it protects health and other workers who provide that care. Now is a critical time when countries across the world need to accelerate implementation of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and increase investments to close gaps in infection prevention and control (IPC) , including hand hygiene. Indeed, many countries are demonstrating strong engagement and advancements in scaling-up those actions, but overall, the progress is slow, and gains are at risk. Together, we can galvanize action on preventing infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care.  Strong and engaged communities of health workers, policy makers and civil society organizations (CSOs) can accelerate and sustain action at the point of care to keep people...

  Access to proper hand hygiene services, supplies, and facilities is a critical determinant to improving hand hygiene behavior. Studies published in 2022 examined socio-demographic factors that impact hand hygiene access and explored the effectiveness of various hand hygiene techniques and products. Endalew et al. (2022) analyzed the prevalence and factors associated with limited handwashing facilities – defined as a dedicated location for handwashing where either soap or water are available but not both – among 29 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa using data from Demographic Health Surveys. Based on their model, the prevalence of limited handwashing facilities was 66.16%. A cross-sectional study by Muramatsu-Noguchi etal. (2022) investigated the association between socioeconomic status and the presence of soap at handwashing facilities in Laos. The study found a significant linear relationship between the presence of soap and household wealth and educational attainment. Althoug...