Today Is World Hand Hygiene Day – Nurses and Midwives, Clean Care Is in Your Hands
Today is World Hand Hygiene Day – clean healthcare is among the most urgent challenges identified by the United Nations to be addressed by the global community in the next 10 years, and is highly relevant in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as fighting against infections, sepsis, and, most recently, SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.
Since the World Health Assembly has dedicated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, this year’s World Hand Hygiene Day theme is ‘Nurses and Midwives, clean care is in your hands’.
Please join us in celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day today. Share the official song (embedded below) with your friends and colleagues, join the campaign on social media, participate in the free WHO webinar today at 14:00h CEST, or register your institution, if you have not done so already.
Although 80% of sepsis cases are contracted outside of the hospital (see video below), hand hygiene plays a critical role in the prevention of infections, and therefore the prevention of sepsis.
Consequently, the WHO and the GSA urge all healthcare institutions, all health workers, as well as all policymakers and other stakeholders to address hand hygiene, infection prevention and control, and sepsis holistically as pillars of a coordinated strategy.
There are between 47 and 50 million cases of sepsis every year worldwide, with 11 million deaths per year. 20% of all worldwide deaths per year are associated with sepsis, including many from SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19.
In May 2017, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of sepsis, spearheaded by the Global Sepsis Alliance.