Hand Hygiene Day Sends a Life-saving Message Worldwide
We don’t need to be Superman, Iron Man or Wonder Woman. We all have the power to help save lives. It’s as easy washing our hands.
Clean hands save lives.
That’s the important message the World Health Organization is sending worldwide May 5 during World Hand Hygiene Day. Clean hands prevent infection and stop illnesses cold at home, school, restaurants and work. In health care facilities, good hand hygiene is essential to saving lives.
From Boston to Bangladesh to Beijing; from Cedar Rapids to San Antonio to Sydney; from Montreal to Mexico City to Morocco; the theme of Hand Hygiene Day 2015 is being spread.
“Save Lives: Clean Your Hands.”
This worldwide health campaign encourages patients and their families to join health workers in practicing good health hygiene. According to WHO statistics, hundreds of millions of patients are affected by health care-associated infections each year. More than half of these sometimes fatal infections can be avoided by caregivers properly cleaning their hands while tending to patients.
With proper hand hygiene, diseases are stopped and prevented from spreading head on. This year’s Hand Hygiene Day theme also highlights the importance of strong hand hygiene in preventing the spread of antimicrobial resistance (infections resistant to antibiotics). This year alone, an estimated 23,000 Americans will die from antimicrobial resistance threats. Also in 2015, over two million people in the U.S. will develop infections that are resistant to antibiotics.
Not surprisingly, the Center for Disease Control’s recommended first core action to preventing infections is good hand hygiene.
Hand Hygiene Day also raises awareness of how easy proper hand hygiene is. When water isn’t available, hand sanitizer removes soap, dirt and microorganisms from hands, cleansing our hands of pathogens (including bacteria and viruses) that lurk as invisible threats to our health.
There might not be a more affordable infection stopper on Earth. Sanitizers like B4 Brands’ Avant series of germ killers cost just a few dollars per bottle and help prevent millions of deaths each year.
Hand Hygiene Day is a great way for all of us to remember infection prevention is easy and starts with the knowledge that clean hands and proper hand hygiene practices save lives, most importantly, our own.