Hand Hygiene 101

With cases of COVID-19 rising globally, correct and thorough hand hygiene is now especially important.

Hand hygiene is necessary so that healthcare workers can protect themselves, their families and the clients they interact with. Thousands of people around the world die every day from infections caught while in care, and appropriate and adequate hand hygiene is a crucial prevention technique we can all utilise to reduce the spread of harmful infections and diseases (WHO 2009).

Hands are the main way pathogens are transmitted in healthcare settings (WHO 2009). People collect germs throughout the day as they touch various objects and surfaces, and may then spread these germs to others, or infect themselves (Mayo Clinic 2019). This is called the ‘chain of infection’ (Murphy 2019).