WHO
World Hand Hygiene Day 2021.
World Hand Hygiene Day 2021.
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Credits
The SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands global campaign, launched in 2009 and celebrated annually on 5 May (World Hand Hygiene Day) aims to maintain global promotion, visibility and sustainability of
hand hygiene in health care and to ‘bring people together’ in support of hand hygiene improvement around the world.
For World Hand Hygiene Day 2021, WHO calls on health care workers and facilities to achieve effective hand hygiene action at the point of care. The point of care refers to the place where three elements come together: the patient, the health care worker, and care or treatment involving contact with the patient or their surroundings. To be effective and prevent transmission of infectious microorganisms during health care delivery, hand hygiene should be performed when it is needed (at 5 specific moments) and in the most effective way (by using the right technique with readily available products) at the point of care. This can be achieved by using the WHO multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy.
Campaign details
Campaign theme: Achieving hand hygiene at the point of care.
Slogan: Seconds save lives – clean your hands!
Campaign objectives:
- Engage multiple audiences, highlighting their role in achieving effective hand hygiene action at the point of care, according to the WHO multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy.
- Support implementation of the WHO 2020 recommendation for universal hand hygiene and of the WHO/UNICEF Hand Hygiene for All initiative in health care facilities.
Calls to action
- Health care workers: Now more than ever - clean your hands at the point of care!
- IPC practitioners: Be a champion and mentor for clean hands at the point of care.
- Facility Managers: Ensure hand hygiene supplies are available at every point of care.
- Policy Makers: Invest now to ensure hand hygiene for all.
- Patients and families: Help us to help you: please clean your hands.
- Vaccinators: Clean your hands with every vaccine.
- Everyone: Make clean hands your habit - it protects us all!
Announcements
How to get involved
Click below for instructions on how you can be involved in celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day 2021!
Faces of the Campaign
See how health workers around the world are celebrating this year's World Hand Hygiene Day 2021!
Join the campaign
Show your facility’s commitment to hand hygiene improvement at the point of care. Sign up for the Save Lives: Clean Your Hands campaign.
Campaign essentials
There is a wide range of campaign materials such as posters, social media assets, web banners, etc. available in the 6 official UN languages. All assets, the high resolution files and translations are accessible for download through the below link.
CALLS TO ACTION & CAMPAIGN POSTERS
Calls to action posters adhering to infection prevention and control measures to limit the spread of SARS-CoV2 (including measures such as the use of masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene). Learn more about mask use in the context of covid-19.
Campaign poster
Health care workers
IPC practitioners
Patients and families
Policy makers
Vaccinators
Everyone
Facility managers
Key facts and figures
Appropriate hand hygiene prevents up to 50% of avoidable infections acquired during health care delivery, including those affecting the health work force.
Appropriate hand hygiene reduces the risk on SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes COVID-19 - infection among health workers.
1 in 3 facilities lack hand hygiene facilities at the point of care.
Globally, out of every 100 patients, 7 in developed and 15 in developing countries will acquire at least one HAI in acute care hospitals.
Hand hygiene in context of COVID-19
15 January 2021
Aide-memoire: Infection prevention and control (IPC) principles and procedures for COVID-19 vaccination...
This Aide Memoire is for policy makers, immunization programme managers, infection prevention and control (IPC) focal points at national, sub-national,...
12 October 2020
Hand hygiene for all initiative: improving access and behaviour in health care facilities
The WHO and UNICEF-led Hand Hygiene for All Initiative aims at ensuring implementation for WHO's global recommendations on hand hygiene to prevent and...
1 April 2020
Recommendations to Member States to improve hand hygiene practices to help prevent the transmission of...
WHO recommends member states provide universal access to public hand hygiene stations and making their use obligatory on entering and leaving any public...
Key documents on hand hygiene
17 September 2020
Core competencies for infection prevention and control professionals
The purpose of this document is to define who is the infection prevention and control (IPC) professional and identify what core competencies are needed...
18 November 2019
Minimum requirements for infection prevention and control programmes
The purpose of this document is to present and promote the minimum requirements for IPC programmes at the national and health care facility level, identified...
On the basis of scientific evidence and with input from international experts and IPC colleagues working in countries, WHO recently identified the essential...
31 July 2009
Hand Hygiene: Why, How & When?
Thousands of people die every day around the world from infections acquired while receiving health care.Hands are the main pathways of germ transmission...
9 February 2009
A guide to the implementation of the WHO multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy
WHO_IER_PSP_2009.02_chi.pdf (5.297Mb) WHO_IER_PSP_2009.02_per.pdf (1.857Mb)
15 January 2009
WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care
The WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care provide health-care workers (HCWs), hospital administrators and health authorities with a thorough...
Key reminders
The Your 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene approach defines the key moments when health-care workers should perform hand hygiene.
This evidence-based, field-tested, user-centred approach is designed to be easy to learn, logical and applicable in a wide range of settings.
This approach recommends health-care workers to clean their hands:
- before touching a patient;
- before clean/aseptic procedures;
- after body fluid exposure/risk;
- after touching a patient; and
- after touching patient surroundings.
For more key reminders, please visit our hand hygiene page.
About hand sanitizer
Resources