On World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO is spotlighting the urgent need for states in the South-East Asia Region and worldwide to rigorously utensil hand hygiene at the tip of healthcare delivery, accelerating the progress made throughout the COVID-19 response. The theme of this year’s end– ‘Accelerate action together’ – emphasizes the censorious role that strong and busy communities of health and care workers, policymakers, and civil society companies must play in startle action to prevent poison and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in health keeping.
Globally, poor hand hygiene at the point of care significantly contributes to healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). HAIs affect 15 out of every 100 cases in low- and middle-income countries, murdering around 1 in every ten involved. They are a significant cause of AMR, which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and passenger change over time and no longer greet to medicines, making poison harder to treat and increasing the risk of illness spread, severe disease and death.
A Simple Act That Can Save Lives
Inadequate hand hygiene in health custody is primarily caused by restricted awareness of and entry to safe water, cleanliness and hygiene (WASH) in health keep provision. Globally, 1 in 8 health care spaces has no water resource, one in 5 has no sanitation favour, and one in 6 has no hand hygiene space at the points of care. Six countries of the Region confirm that at least 60% of healthcare facilities provide essential WASH services. The exact number of countries are implementing the WHO/UNICEF WASH FIT tool, which all nations should urgently adopt.
Momentum continues to build by the Region’s Flagship Priorities of achieving universal health coverage (UHC), preventing and combating AMR, and accelerating the depletion of maternal, neonatal and under-five humanity. Since 2016, all nations of the Region have applied the Region’s Strategy for Patient Safety 2016–2025, which shelters all core aspects of quality of care, patient safety and poison prevention and control (IPC). The Strategy is positioned with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030.
The Importance of Hand Hygiene in Preventing the Spread of Disease
Throughout the COVID-19 response, critical stakeholders in the Region engage in an array of WHO-supported IPC training and a Regional consultation to align necessary interventions with the Global Patient Safety Action Plan. In October 2022, WHO directed a Regional capacity-building work on WASH, climate resilience and the environmental sustainability of healthcare facilities. Actionable guidance was provided on executing the WASH FIT implementation and the Eight Practical Steps to Achieve Universal Access to Quality of Care.
Across the Region, countries pursue intensified action to improve the quality of care, forbearing safety and IPC at the primary health keeping (PHC) level, in line with the advice of another WHO-bear conference in October 2022, as well as the Region’s overall centre on reorienting health structure towards quality, accessible, popular and thorough PHC to build health system resilience and attain UHC.
Today, WHO has some messages. First, to fitness and care workers: Perform hand cleanliness at the point of care when needed, on the WHO ‘5 Moments for Hand Hygiene report and use the suitable technique. Second, to IPC exponent: Lead the way for wash hands with actionable resources and feedback to health and care workers for immediate improvement.
Third, to policymakers: Invest in hand hygiene as a priority patient safety intervention, ensuring the dignity of care and increasing health care company. Fourth, to people who enter health care: Observe hand hygiene in health space and join WHO’s global Hand Hygiene for All enterprise, which highlights how everyone, everywhere, can further hand hygiene in schools, workplaces and other institutional settings. Increased society-wide absorption of adequate and systematic hand hygiene – counting in the home – will reduce morbidity from various infectious diseases, including diarrhoea and gasping infections.
World Hand Hygiene Day
In the silhouette of the COVID-19 crisis, Region-wide advances in hand hygiene must be sustained and accelerated. For that, community actors in health care and civil society must come together to recognize gaps, challenges and chances at the point of care, focusing on avoiding duplication and fragmentation and maximizing resource efficiency. Operational research should support these endeavours and help countries develop and maintain fully fetch hand hygiene roadmaps.
On World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO repeated its dedication to ‘Accelerate action together’ in all Region countries to utilize hand hygiene at the point of healthcare delivery for fewer HAIs, reduced AMR, and safer, more prosperous and more efficient healthcare facilities for all.
