World Hand Hygiene Day, which is marked on 5 May globally, emphasises the importance of hand hygiene in health care to prevent infections including sepsis.

According to WHO EMRO region the slogan of this year’s campaign is “It’s in your hands – prevent sepsis in health care”, which illustrates the important relationship between good infection prevention and control practices, such as washing your hands, and preventing sepsis.

This World Hand Hygiene Day the NIOH, a WHO Collaborating Centre,  encourages all to be inspired by the global movement to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). “Infection Prevention and Control, including hand hygiene, is critical to achieve UHC as it is a practical and evidence-based approach with demonstrated impact on quality of care and patient safety across all levels of the health system.” (WHO)

From an occupational health perspective, hand hygiene is one of the most important ways to reduce the transmission of infections in WORK settings.

Be a champion and a change agent. Promote hand hygiene in healthcare and indeed all sectors of the economy

Learn more through the WHO Fact Sheet on Sepsis

Learn more about how to reduce the transmission of infections in work settings