International Journal of Infection Control
“Clean care for all – it’s in your hands” Peters et al.
www.ijic.info ISSN 1996-9783
Editorial commentary
“Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”:
the May 5th, 2019 World Health Organization
SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign
Alexandra Peters1, Tcheun Borzykowski1, Ermira Tartari1, Claire Kilpatrick2,
Safiah Hwai Chuen Mai2,Benedetta Allegranzi2, Didier Pittet1
1 Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety,
University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland
2 Infection Prevention and Control Global Unit, Department of Service Delivery and
Safety, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
doi: 10.3396/IJIC.v15i2.005.19
Quality healthcare should be available to everyone. hygiene day reflects a strong focus on providing
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) concept of clean care equally protecting all patients and
Universal Health Coverage (UHC),1 embodies the healthcare workers from infection and
urgent need for access to healthcare for all people antimicrobial resistance transmission, across all
around the world. In addition to access, the concept countries, including in low-resource settings.
of UHC incorporates the critical element of the
necessary quality of delivered health care services. WHO urges ministries of health, health facility leaders,
Infection prevention and control (IPC) with hand IPC leaders, health workers, and patient advocacy
hygiene as the most effective measure, is a groups to contribute to effective IPC action including
practical and evidence-based approach with hand hygiene as a cornerstone of quality in healthcare
demonstrated impact on quality of care and patient (Table I). WHO invites all healthcare facilities to join
safety across all levels of the health system. the 2019 WHO Global Survey on IPC and Hand
Hygiene by using two validated assessment tools; one
Each year, the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands for evaluating the core components of IPC
campaign aims to bring people together in support of programmes and the other for a deep dive into hand
hand hygiene improvement globally on or around May hygiene activities (https://www.who.int/infection-
5th.2 This year’s theme for global annual hand prevention/campaigns/ipc-global-survey-2019/en/).
Corresponding Author
Professor Didier Pittet, Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre on
Patient Safety, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, 4 Rue Gabrielle-
Perret-Gentil, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland.
E-mail: didier.pittet@hcuge.ch
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“Clean care for all – it’s in your hands” Peters et al.
On a facility level, the use of these tools gives institutions Globally, this survey will allow WHO to provide a
a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses situational analysis on the level of progress of
of their IPC and hand hygiene programmes, and provides current IPC and hand hygiene activities around the
concrete actions to address existing gaps. These tools world and inform future efforts and resource use for
allow institutions to improve their IPC practices and IPC capacity building and improvement. Global
policies in a concrete and measurable way, at their own Surveys using the Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment
speed and in their own context. The surveys are Framework were already conducted in 2011 and
anonymous, and global results will be made available 2015,3-5 making this year’s survey even more crucial
only using aggregated data. This means that facilities for tracking the implementation of hand hygiene
and ministries of health can commit fully to working on and IPC on a global scale (Figure 1).
improving IPC and patient safety without fear of scrutiny
or possible negative repercussions. Each improvement in IPC contributes toward quality
UHC. “Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”!
Table I. May 5, 2019, World Health Organization SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign calls to action
Campaign participants Call to action
Health workers “Champion clean care – it’s in your hands.”
“Monitor infection prevention and control standards – take action
IPC* leaders
and improve practices.”
“Is your facility up to WHO infection control and hand hygiene
Health facility leaders
standards? Take part in the WHO survey 2019 and take action!”
“Does your country meet infection prevention and control
Ministries of health standards? Monitor and act to achieve quality universal health
coverage.”
Patient advocacy groups “Ask for clean care – it’s your right.”
*IPC, infection prevention and control
References
1. WHO. What is universal coverage? WHO Available at: 4. Allegranzi B, Conway L, Larson E, Pittet D. Status of the
http://www.who.int/health_financing/universal_coverage_ implementation of the World Health Organization multimodal
definition/en/. (Accessed: 19th February 2019) hand hygiene strategy in United States of America health
care facilities. Am J Infect Control 2014; 42(3): 224–230.
2. WHO. SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands. WHO Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2013.11.015
http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-
hands/en/. (Accessed: 19th February 2019) 5. Kilpatrick C, Tartari E, Gayet-Ageron A, Storr J, Tomczyk S,
Allegranzi B, Pittet D. Global hand hygiene improvement
3. WHO. WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Global Survey
progress: two surveys using the WHO Hand Hygiene Self-
for 2015. WHO Available at: http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/
Assessment Framework. J Hosp Infect 2018; 100(2): 202-
hhsa_framework-2015/en/. (Accessed: 19th February 2019)
206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2018.07.036
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“Clean care for all – it’s in your hands” Peters et al.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the World Health instance, companies/industry with a focus on hand
Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland, and the hygiene and infection control related advancement
Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating have the specific aim of improving access to
Centre on Patient Safety (SPCI/WCC), University of affordable hand hygiene products as well as through
Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, education and research. All listed authors declare no
Switzerland; hand hygiene research activities at the financial support, grants, financial interests or
SPCI/WCC are also supported by the Swiss National consultancy that could lead to conflicts of interest.
Science Foundation (grant no. 32003B_163262).
The authors alone are responsible for the views
Didier Pittet works with WHO in the context of the expressed in this article and they do not necessarily
WHO initiative ‘Private Organizations for Patient represent the views, decisions or policies of the
Safety – Hand Hygiene’. The aim of this WHO institutions with which they are affiliated. WHO
initiative is to harness industry strengths to align and takes no responsibility for the information provided
improve implementation of WHO recommendations or the views expressed in this paper.
for hand hygiene in health care indifferent parts of the
world, including in least developed countries. In this Conflict of interest: None declared
Figure 1. May 5, 2019: “Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”!
The May 5, 2019, World Health Organization SAVE participants are invited to submit photos or selfies
LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign slogan and main of them holding a board with the slogan and
promotional image (2019 hashtags: #HandHygiene hashtags at www.CleanHandsSaveLives.org
#InfectionPrevention #HealthForAll). Campaign
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