WHO Highlights Hand Washing Need

Good hand hygiene practices among healthcare practitioners could halt the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, says WHO.

AsianScientist (May 8, 2014) – On Hand Hygiene Day (May 5), WHO urges health workers to practice good hand hygiene when caring for patients, to protect them from contracting infections in health facilities. Initial results from a new WHO global survey confirm that these infections are often resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them.

Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections, a high proportion of which is caused by germs that are resistant to antimicrobial drugs.

Healthcare-associated infections usually occur when germs are transferred by healthcare providers’ hands touching the patient. Of every 100 hospitalized patients, at least seven in high-income and ten in low-/middle-income countries will acquire a healthcare-associated infection. Among critically ill and vulnerable patients in intensive care units, that figure rises to around 30 per 100.

When patients are infected with germs that do not respond well to antibiotics, they generally have worse clinical outcomes, cost more to treat and are more likely to die than other patients.

Earlier this week, WHO issued a major global report on antimicrobial resistance documenting high rates of resistance in bacteria that cause common infections (e.g. urinary tract infection, surgical site infections, pneumonia and bloodstream infections) in all regions of the world.

The initial results of the global survey confirm that resistance is very frequent in bacteria isolated in healthcare facilities; for instance, for a devastating bug called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), it is as high as 38 to 44 percent in Europe and Latin America respectively.

“There is clear scientific evidence that good hand hygiene by health workers reduces healthcare-associated infections caused by resistant germs, in particular by MRSA,” says Professor Benedetta Allegranzi, technical lead of the WHO Clean Care is Safer Care program and of the activities planned for Hand Hygiene Day.

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Source: World Health Organization; Photo: Sean Winters/Flickr/CC.

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