Washing our hands is a famous pillar of COVID-19 prevention, but it's been a strong global health focus for many years.
Since early 2020, we've all become accustomed to regularly washing our hands. Hand sanitising stations have become commonplace in workplaces and retail and hospitality venues worldwide. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, hygiene products like hand soap and sanitiser ran low in shops worldwide.
While the pandemic saw handwashing become our number one hygiene focus, it’s been the subject of global health campaigns for many years.
Such is the focus on hand hygiene that it’s subject to two health awareness days:
In addition to these health awareness days, several ongoing campaigns also relate to hand hygiene, including the WHO's Clean Care is Safer Care campaign.
It's easy to think something as simple as handwashing doesn't warrant the focus it receives, especially if you've always been diligent about your hand hygiene.
However, not everyone has the same approach to keeping their hands clean, often due to a lack of awareness around the importance of hand hygiene. We should also remember that many locations worldwide lack the facilities to ensure people can follow handwashing guidance to its fullest extent.
In particular, medical facilities lacking the tools to facilitate proper handwashing means many patients and healthcare workers are at increased risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Essentially, an HAI is an illness you acquire while in hospital and not the one that led to your admission to a medical facility in the first place.
As such, awareness days like World Hand Hygiene Day and Global Handwashing Day often focus on funding and improving such facilities. Although they focus on the importance of hand hygiene on an individual level, the message from these awareness days stretches far beyond simply washing your hands!
In addition, there are many shocking statistics about hand hygiene even in high-income countries, so it would be wrong to generalise this as a problem exclusive to low- and middle-income nations.
Days like World Patient Safety Day also touch on hand hygiene within and on top of their broader message and focus.
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that hand hygiene is the single most effective action in preventing the spread of infection. Alongside access to safe vaccinations, access to clean water and handwashing facilities can potentially save millions of lives worldwide every year.
Ahead of World Hand Hygiene Day 2021, the WHO highlighted the following vital statistics:
While these statistics are all shocking, they become even more so when we look at the data related to the direct impact on patients and the human cost. The WHO's campaign pack also highlighted the following:
It is unsurprising that handwashing warrants two health awareness days per year with numbers like this.
The primary theme for Global Handwashing Day 2022, which takes place on 15th October, is “Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene.”
The Global Handwashing Partnership is pushing this year’s event as “an opportunity to design, test, and replicate creative ways to encourage people to wash their hands with soap at critical times.” The campaign also calls for hand hygiene to remain a focal point of general health discussions, especially as we move out of the pandemic phase of COVID-19.
The easiest way to get involved with Global Handwashing Day 2022 is to take advantage of the resources made available by the Global Handwashing Partnership, which include banners and factsheets.
Remember that you can impact everyone around you by discussing the importance of hand hygiene with friends and loved ones, especially children!
Happy Global Handwashing Day!