World Hand Hygiene Day 05.05.

WHO calls to action on May the 5th within the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign. With its slogan No action today; no cure tomorrow is emphasizing the importance of WHO 5 Moments of hand washing as part of protecting patients from resistant germs.

Among the activities to support the 5 May 2014 call focused on the role of hand hygiene in reducing the spread of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), WHO is inviting health-care facilities from all around the world to participate in two global surveys:

  1. WHO Global Laboratory-based Survey on MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT ORGANISMS (MDROs) in Health Care – to assess and raise awareness of the prevalence of the five main health care-associated MDROs that have been identified at the global level.
  2. WHO Global Prevalence Survey on use of SURGICAL ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS – to assess surgical antibiotic prophylaxis prescribing in a wide range of acute health-care facilities.

Submission deadline is extended to 3 May 2014!

WHO will be the only recipient of the data and commits to keeping individual facility names and results strictly confidential. A fuller report that includes these data results is planned for August 2014.

 See WHO’s homepage to complete the reports.