World Hand Hygiene Day
This day acts as a reminder to all healthcare workers and general citizens that every single person is empowered to prevent the spread of infection and disease through the simple practice of hand washing!
How to Celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day
This event offers a variety of simple ways to get involved in taking care of personal health and community health together. Get connected with the day in a few of these ways:
Wash Your Hands
As a first step to participating in World Hand Hygiene Day, just do the easiest thing and hop over to the sink to wash your hands with warm, soapy water. Get rid of those invisible germs and protect not only yourself but those around you!
Those who don’t have soap and water readily available can use hand sanitizer in the short term, then wash hands as soon as it becomes possible.
Brush Up on Hand Hygiene Protocol
Sure, most everyone knows that they should wash their hands. But some people, especially parents and teachers of small children, might need a reminder to help teach the basics to little ones for a lifetime of protection.
The Centers for Disease Control offers a guide to teaching handwashing as a family activity.
Sign Up for the Campaign
Healthcare facilities, hospital managers and others who work in community health can make a pledge to better hand hygiene by registering on the WHO website.
Making patient safety is the top priority and one of the easiest ways to do that is to prevent health-care associated illness (HAI) with proper training on and practicing hand hygiene.
Access Hand Hygiene Resources
Looking for posters, banners, web banners and more? Get access to a full toolkit of resources to celebrate in style and with helpful graphics through the WHO website.
History of World Hand Hygiene Day
While handwashing is something that comes as second nature to most adults in the modern world, it has only been a practice for less than two centuries!
In 1846, a Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis, noticed that women delivering babies were less likely to become ill when doctors did not “carry” an infection into the maternity ward from other places.
Not long after this, Louis Pasteur discovered the invisible germ, and it changed everything. Over the years, hand hygiene has become a standard practice not only in hospitals and medical centers but everywhere!
The spread of disease has been significantly reduced through the use of handwashing practices, and that’s why World Hand Hygiene Day was founded.
The inaugural celebration of this event was brought about in 2009 by the World Health Organization (WHO). This initiative was part of a global campaign called “SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands”.
Since then the event has been embraced by governments, organizations and healthcare facilities all over the globe!
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