Hand Hygiene Day 5 May 2020
2020-05-12
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Hand hygiene is the key element to the prevention of the spread of diseases. To echo with the World Health Organization’s SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands initiative, Hand Hygiene Day has been marked annually on the May 5 in Hong Kong to promote the importance of hand hygiene in both healthcare settings and the community since 2010.
The theme of this year is “Let’s Remind Each Other Keep Hands Clean Together!”.
Hand hygiene seems nothing new, but we are promoting a concept which may be new to most members of the public: patient empowerment. Patients are given knowledge and skills, so that they may have greater control over decisions and actions affecting their health in an environment which encourages patient participation. Patient empowerment in hand hygiene therefore aims to empower and encourage patients to observe and to remind others in proper hand hygiene practice.
Hand hygiene is a well-known health measure which can help to prevent the spread of infections including healthcare associated infections. Meanwhile, we are still fighting the battle of antimicrobial resistance, and hand hygiene is an important measure. Multidrug resistant micro-organisms are reported regularly. We need to stop them from infiltrating into our community. It is not just the duty of healthcare workers, but need conjoint efforts from all sectors of the community. From home to school, from clinic to hospital wards, all can contribute by offering friendly reminders so that hand hygiene practice will be sustained.
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