News release from WHO and a comment from me below.
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World Hand Hygiene Day 2026: Action saves lives
5 May 2026 Departmental update
Despite progress in some countries, health care‑associated infections (HAIs) remain a daily threat to patients, families and health workers in every health-care setting worldwide, including during public health emergencies. On 5 May 2026, on World Hand Hygiene Day, WHO spotlights the urgent need to tackle this persistent challenge. This year’s message is clear and urgent: HAIs are preventable: Action saves lives.
HAIs contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), lead to suffering, disability and premature death, increase health‑care costs, and undermine efforts to deliver high-quality care for all.
A large proportion of these infections can still be prevented. Timely hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) action provide a high return on investment for health systems and significantly improve patient and health worker safety in all settings.
However, action is often constrained by substandard health‑care environments, including limited access to water, sanitation, waste management and hygiene services. These gaps not only compromise IPC best practices also affect equity and dignity for those providing and receiving care. World Hand Hygiene Day continues to highlight these challenges and call for practical, sustained solutions...
After 18 years of observance of this Day, the message remains clear: when hand hygiene action is taken at the right time, lives can be saved.
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COMMENT (NPW): I would be interested to learn from HIFA members: To what extent do people understand that hand washing saves lives, prevents infections, prevents diarrhoea, prevents respiratory infections? What are the most effective methods to increase understanding?
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org