Every year, World Hand Hygiene Day takes place on May 5. This day, which has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), encourages people to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. World Hand Hygiene Day aims to create awareness around the world about hand hygiene in health care facilities, thus protecting health care workers and patients from infections. Clean health care is among the most urgent challenges identified by the United Nations to be tackled in the next 10 years by the global community. The World Hand Hygiene Day is marked worldwide. How to Make Hand-Washing Fun Ritual For Kids? From Singing Songs to Using Colourful Soaps, Here's a List of Activities Every Parent Must Try at Home!

Hand hygiene is one of these and can only be achieved with the right things in place. WHO states that every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

World Hand Hygiene Day 2020 Theme:

The theme of the World Hand Hygiene Day 2020 is “SAVE LIVES: Clean your hands”. The special day aims to recognize nurses as front-line heroes who deserve acknowledgement and appreciation, and highlight their critical roles in infection prevention.

World Hand Hygiene Day History 

The World Hand Hygiene Day is an international handwashing promotion campaign to motivate and mobilize people around the world to improve their handwashing habits.  At the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017, Member States adopted a resolution on improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sepsis.

Significance of World Hand Hygiene Day

The main goal of the World Hand Hygiene Day campaign is to recognize that hand-washing is one of the most effective actions you can take to reduce the spread of pathogens and prevent infections, including the COVID-19 virus. Health workers and community members alike can play a role in preventing infections by practicing regular and frequent handwashing.

As part of the 2020 campaign, WHO and partners aim to:

  • Make hand hygiene a global priority

  • Inspire hand hygiene and behavior change

  • Engage with health care workers in their role in clean care and the prevention of infections.

According to the UN, health care-associated infections acquired during health care delivery, are common and are a risk factor for developing sepsis but we can prevent this. On this day, WHO calls on everyone to be inspired by the global movement to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 05, 2020 07:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).