Good hand hygiene can prevent 70% of health infections: WHO report

THE COVID-19 pandemic and other recent large disease outbreaks have highlighted the extent to which healthcare settings can contribute to the spread of infections, harming patients, health workers and visitors, if insufficient attention is paid to infection prevention and control (IPC). But a new report from the World Health Organization shows that where good hand hygiene and other cost-effective practices are followed, 70% of those infections can be prevented.

Today, out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals, seven patients in high income countries and 15 patients in low and middle income countries will acquire at least one healthcare-associated infection (HAI) during their hospital stay. On an average, one in every 10 affected patients will die from their HAI.

People in intensive care and newborns are particularly at risk. And the report reveals that approximately one in four hospital-treated sepsis cases and almost half of all cases of sepsis with organ dysfunction treated in adult intensive-care units are healthcare-associated.

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Today, on the eve of World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO is previewing the first-ever Global Report on Infection Prevention and Control which brings together evidence from scientific literature and various reports, and new data from WHO studies.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many challenges and gaps in IPC in all regions and countries, including those which had the most advanced IPC programmes,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO.