The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), in collaboration with its partners, launched an awareness campaign to commemorate World Hand Hygiene Day, which falls on Sunday, the 5th of May, under the theme "Why is sharing knowledge about hand hygiene still so important Because it helps stop the spread of harmful germs in healthcare."
The campaign aims to intensify awareness on the importance of hand hygiene for visitors to governmental, semi-governmental, and private health facilities through social media, as well as through numerous awareness activities held on the 5th and 6th of May.
The central theme of the 2024 awareness campaign revolves around promoting knowledge and capacity building for healthcare workers through innovative and impactful training and education on infection prevention and control (IPC), including hand hygiene.
The campaign aims to improve learning methodologies to enable the implementation of innovative and effective training that will empower healthcare workers to improve hand hygiene and prevent and control infections at the point of care. The improved learning methodologies provide enhanced knowledge, skills, and behaviours, as well as greater access to innovative training resources on hand hygiene and IPC for healthcare workers.
The campaign's objectives also include raising awareness about the importance of being knowledgeable about hand hygiene and learning when and how to wash your hands to prevent a range of infectious diseases. It also focuses on promoting mechanisms for measuring and evaluating the impact of training and education on IPC standards and practices, including hand hygiene and its effect on preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
As part of the celebration of World Hand Hygiene Day, the MOPH Infection Control and Prevention Team organised a training workshop on Sunday, the 5th of May, for all healthcare workers on the importance of hand hygiene, held at the Itqan Clinical Simulation and Innovation Center in Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City.
Hand hygiene (either through washing or sanitising) is considered one of the most significant healthcare interventions, as it reduces the transmission of germs (including antibiotic-resistant strains) and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), contributing to patient safety. Therefore, effective and timely hand hygiene is among the most critical measures in infection prevention and control (IPC).
