Hand hygiene
In the fight against antimicrobial resistance, WHO launched the Global Action Plan in 2015, which named 5 essential aspects to tackle this global threat. One of these 5 pillars is Infection Prevention & Control (IPC). A core aspect of IPC and one of the standard precautions, is performing hand hygiene. This has shown to be one of the most cost-efficient interventions in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections. Hand hygiene programmes can prevent up to 50% of nosocomial infections and result in economic savings of many times the cost of implementation.
Information on when and how to perform hand hygiene can be found below. WHO has created the ‘5 moments for hand hygiene’ model, to illustrate when to perform hand hygiene. The 5 moments are:
(1) before touching the patient,
(2) before a clean/aseptic procedure,
(3) after body fluid exposure risk,
(4) after touching the patient and
(5) after touching the patient surroundings.
These 5 moments are essential, and not only for clinicians in limiting the spread of healthcare-associated infections, but also for phlebotomists and laboratory staff in charge of the collection of blood for blood cultures. Sampling blood cultures in the most aseptic manner possible will reduce the number of contaminants and thereby yield high quality results.
If available, is alcohol-based handrub always preferable, because it works faster, can be used bedside and during aseptic procedures.
Click here to see the WHO guideline for the local production of alcohol-based handrub. When handrub is not available, hand hygiene can be done by washing your hands with water and soap, and drying your hands with a clean cloth.
On this page, you can also find some infographics:
- 5 moments of hand hygiene,
- how to correctly use handrub,
- how to correctly wash your hands.